President Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine and Poland has earned him praise from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Graham, South Carolina’s senior senator, said he was very pleased that Biden took the time and made the effort to visit Ukraine and meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
“This was the right signal to send at the right time,” Graham said in a news release. “A presidential visit to Ukraine, along with the statements made by Vice President [Kamala] Harris at the Munich Security Conference that Russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine, are a powerful combination.”
Biden’s visit and Harris’s statement come four and six days before the one year anniversary of the beginning of the Russian special military operation in the country. Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., led the Congressional delegation to the Munich Security Conference.
“Words are powerful, but they must be followed by powerful actions as well,” Graham said. “”We must be doing all we can to allow the victim of the crime against humanity, Ukraine, to defend itself from the war criminal, Putin.”
He said the United States needs to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Graham introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terror last year. Graham’s resolution was approved by the Senate on July 27, 2022.
He said designating the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terror would help ensure any lethal assistance provided by China to Russia would be devastating to the Chinese economy.
“Second, we should stop the debate about advanced fighter aircraft for Ukraine,” Graham said. “Instead, we should start immediately training Ukrainian pilots and maintainers, and provide them the advanced fighter jets to not only win this war but deter future aggression.”
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