Markey: US must continue to help Ukraine
But avoid becoming embroiled in Russian war
The U.S. and its NATO allies will continue to arm Ukrainians fighting the bloodiest conflict that Europe has seen since World War II, but the U.S. will not go to war with Russia, Sen. Ed Markey said on Saturday following a fiveday trip to Poland and NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.
Markey visited U.S. troops stationed on NATO’s eastern flank in Poland, near the Ukrainian border, and met with Polish, European Union and NATO leaders to discuss “our ongoing unity and resolve in the face of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s murderous campaign against the Ukrainian people,” he said in a Saturday press conference back home.
Putin has underestimated their resolve, he said, “even as they face the greatest evil imaginable in a war in which Russian soldiers are indiscriminately killing civilians, using rape and torture as weapons of war,” without sparing children, the elderly or the disabled.
Poland’s population is now up to 13% Ukrainian because the country has taken in millions of refugees who’ve fled the war, Markey said, and the U.S. must take in more.
He visited one Polish hospital that didn’t exist seven weeks ago but was quickly erected and staffed to provide care for the injured. Poles also are feeding, housing, schooling and teaching Polish to Ukrainian refugees and their children for
however long they stay, Markey said.
“In times of crisis, the United States must step up and do more to offer refuge to Ukrainians, as well as refugees from other countries
around the world on our shores,” he said. “President Biden has reassembled our Refugee Admission Program after it was dismantled by President Trump … But we must go further and raise the refugee cap even higher,” beyond 100,000.
“The theme I’ve heard across my visit is that the wounds of the second World War and Soviet-style communism are still fresh for many of our Eastern European allies,” Markey said.
“They understand what it means to live through the destruction of a country, the loss of freedom. They want to help Ukraine refugees, and they also viscerally feel the threat that Vladimir Putin poses to their full freedom with his delusional desire to revive the Russian Empire. Their spirit of generosity is genuine and also rooted in the deep understanding that they could be next,” he added.
The U.S. must continue to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine and the arsenal it needs to withstand the ongoing Russian onslaught, while working with its NATO allies to fortify their collective security, he said.
The United States also must work to wean itself and its European allies from their “addiction” to Russian oil and gas so that we no longer send billions of dollars to line the pockets of Putin and his “corrupt” Russian oil companies, Markey said.
At the same time, Markey added, “We must do everything we can to avoid a direct conflict between the United States and Russia, which has the world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal.”
Ultimately, he said, the U.S. should continue to push for an end to the war on terms the Ukrainians will negotiate in their own national interests.
The country refugees will return to if Russian soldiers retreat will be a very different one from the one they fled, Markey said, “but they will rebuild a stronger Ukraine with our help, one that is free, one that is prosperous and one that reflects the steely resolve of its people.”