European lawmakers leave Washington concerned about U.S. aid to Ukraine

CNN
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Leading lawmakers from Estonia, Iceland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden held a meeting in Washington on Thursday, concerned and frustrated by their U.S. colleagues’ lack of urgency on the need to help Ukraine. I left behind.

A delegation from the Nordic and Baltic countries, made up of the heads of their national parliamentary foreign affairs committees, is scheduled to meet with U.S. lawmakers from both houses of Congress to rally to defend Ukraine in the face of a full-scale Russian invasion. He has visited the US capital many times. I’m furious.

“We came here clearly to show solidarity, to show our resolve, to show that the U.S. We hope that people will listen to us.”

“It’s a little sad that we’re leaving America,” she said.

The issue of U.S. aid to Kiev had broad Congressional approval at the start of the war, but Republican opposition has grown. Congress has yet to pass a bill for additional funding for Ukraine after last year’s funding was exhausted.

A Senate bill linking funding to Ukraine to border security measures was blocked on Wednesday. Following that failure, the Senate voted Thursday afternoon to begin debate on a security spending package with support for Ukraine.

European lawmakers who were in Washington at the time the border and funding bill was defeated showed that U.S. lawmakers did not recognize the need for Ukraine to receive continued U.S. military support immediately. He said he was concerned.

“There was no sense of urgency about what was going on,” said Rijals Kors from Latvia.

“I had this idea that the Ukraine war was very far away, far from the United States,” he said.

“In Europe we are more united than ever before, but in America isolationism is growing every week. This is very strange,” agreed Zygimantas Pavilionis of Lithuania.

They acknowledged that the influence of former President Donald Trump and consideration of elections within the United States likely played a role.

Marko Mikkelson, head of Estonia’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said many of the MPs he met “actually support Ukraine wholeheartedly.”

“Many of them want this bill to be passed as soon as possible. But they are very afraid of the outcome of their election in November,” he said.

“What struck me was that they weren’t prepared to litigate that in their own districts,” Mickelson said. He and other members of the delegation said they felt like lawmakers wanted to “do their job” in advocating for funding for Ukraine.

Einarsdóttir suggested that U.S. lawmakers need to act now instead of thinking about the political future.

“Donald Trump is not the president of the United States,” she said. “What we’re letting down are real people in real power.”

“Of course, he’s a very influential person. But at the end of the day, we have some very powerful, powerful people, powerful people who are in actual power right now, and we want the United States to do more.” I believe we should,” she said.

Lawmakers are concerned about what message continued funding and, by extension, weapons shortages are sending to Russia, and the Biden administration has expressed similar concerns.

“There is seriousness behind the fact that we are here now,” said Ine Eriksen Søreide from Norway.

“Of course we are concerned about U.S. support for Ukraine. And I say that with quite a sense of solemnity, because we now know that Europe is paying its fair share, both in terms of weapons systems and funding.” And we’re not in a position to do that, even though we’ve given some to Ukraine, to bridge the gap in the event the U.S. withdraws,” she said.

Lawmakers reject criticism that Europe is not doing enough to help Ukraine

“When some Republicans and senators say we have to do more, we do our best. So we really can’t do more,” said Michael Astrup Jensen of Denmark. Ta.