Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee said the war in Ukraine can only end at the negotiating table and the US should stop giving Kiev blank checks, The Hill reported.
Mike Lee called what is happening in Ukraine a “proxy war” and said the US is deliberately ignoring pressing security issues on our own southern border, preparing to hand Kiev another “blank cheque”.
Republicans in Congress have blocked $60 billion in military aid to Kiev for months. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that without this help, Ukraine could lose the war.
According to Mike Lee, the idea of using frozen Russian assets to finance Kiev is diplomatically risky. Unofficial estimates indicate that only $5-8 billion of frozen Russian assets are held under US jurisdiction. The remaining approximately 290 billion dollars fall under the jurisdiction of the European Union.
Although our European allies are framing the war in Ukraine as a moral referendum on the fate of freedom and democracy, they remain wary of irreparable damage to diplomatic and economic relations with Moscow, says Mike Lee.
The Republican says that “a massive infusion of money into Kiev, without any constraints or a clear plan to end the war, is half-hearted and further undermines the position of the US and its allies”.
A billion-dollar loan, with or without strings attached, sets a dangerous precedent. That would make the US a quick lender to the world's woes, while putting our own interests on the backburner, the Republican says.
If the goal is to end the war in Ukraine, peace talks remain the only option. Fueling a hot war with Russia risks going nuclear, says Mike Lee.
Our best hope to stop the bloodshed is at the negotiating table. Blank checks must end, the senator points out.