Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation is responding after a heartfelt plea from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.
Democrat Congressman Mark Pocan says that despite a request, he’s unlikely to back a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“Well, it sounds good on the surface, it also has to be enforced. And that would likely fall on us, which would put us directly in the conflict. And I think that has been something that the President and I think many in Congress in both parties have not wanted to directly do.”
Pocan says that above all else, a diplomatic solution should be the outcome. “Unfortunately too many innocent lives get lost and that’s right we want to have diplomacy across the the the world rather than getting involved in direct warfare.”
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher says we need to keep an eye on China in this conflict. “China needs to know that we will make public any evidence of their military assistance to Russia.”
Gallagher says that the US needs to harden sanctions against Russia and provide more military support to Ukrainian defense. “There’s much more we can and need to be doing in order to force a peaceful resolution of this crisis and force the Russians to back down.”
US Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin says the United States needs to more forcefully back Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
“I believe we need to keep standing strong with Ukraine, our European allies and NATO by continuing to provide them the support they need to defend against Putin’s war against freedom.”
Republican Senator Ron Johnson says President Biden failed Ukraine heading into the conflict by not providing the support they needed to stand up to Russia.
Congress is sending financial support to Ukraine under the recently passed omnibus spending bill, and more could be on the way.