Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) advised the U.S. might must step up its army help for Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin escalates additional and repeats the horrific ways used within the 11-year-old conflict in Syria.
“I deeply fear that what’s going to occur subsequent is that we are going to see Ukraine flip into Syria. The American folks can not flip away from this tragedy in Ukraine. I believe the historical past of the twenty first century activates how fiercely we defend freedom in Ukraine and that Putin will solely cease after we cease him,” Coons mentioned Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when requested if he supported direct U.S. army involvement in Ukraine.
Final week, Coons mentioned U.S. policymakers must set clear tips about using army drive ― together with the sending of troops ― if Russia makes use of chemical weapons or if some form of accident results in the demise of U.S. service members within the area.
“We’re in a really harmful second the place it will be significant that, in a bipartisan and measured means, we in Congress and the administration come to a standard place about after we are keen to go the following step and to ship not simply arms however troops to the help in protection of Ukraine,” the senator, who sits on the Senate International Relations Committee, mentioned throughout a dialogue hosted by the University of Michigan.
He added: “If the reply isn’t then we’re inviting one other degree of escalation in brutality by Putin.”
President Joe Biden has repeatedly dominated out sending U.S. troops to Ukraine, a transfer that might danger opening a wider conflict between two nuclear powers: the U.S. and Russia. The concept of sending troops to straight assist Ukraine can be broadly unpopular on Capitol Hill; even a number of the staunchest conflict hawks on the Republican aspect of the aisle are against it.
Nonetheless, Biden hasn’t shied away from describing the horrors in Ukraine as a “genocide” or calling Putin a “conflict prison.”
The Biden administration final week additionally authorized one other $800 million of weapons techniques and different safety help to Ukraine, on high of billions of {dollars} in assist already authorized by Congress. High lawmakers have advised Congress might want to go one other safety help bundle as Russia regroups and prepares a brand new offensive in japanese Ukraine.
Because the conflict in Ukraine, which started on the finish of February, turns to a new phase, journalists and Ukrainian authorities have reported horrific scenes in cities and villages left by fleeing Russian troops, together with mass graves, executions, torture, rape and looting involving Ukrainian civilians.
“Probably the most horrible conflict crimes we’ve seen for the reason that finish of World Struggle II are being dedicated,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, mentioned in a televised speech to the United Nations Normal Meeting earlier this month, later arguing that “Russia desires to show Ukraine into silent slaves.”
