The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Blumenthal: Longer-range missiles, tanks needed from U.S.
On Friday, when U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and a pair of his Senate colleagues arrived in Kyiv for a secret visit with top Ukrainian officials, the shocking scenes of bombed-out apartment buildings, downed power transformers and other signs of the Russian siege, he was reminded of images of London during the Nazi blitz of World War II.
And like London during the Battle of Britain in 1940, amid the stark reminders of the Russian attacks, people went about their daily business in the embattled Ukrainian capital.
During daylong meetings on Friday, Blumenthal along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. became even more convinced of the need for the United States to increase aid, including longer-range missiles and M1 Abrams battle tanks.
“We have to break the gridlock on the tanks and the Biden administration is the key,” Blumenthal said in a late-night phone interview Saturday from a snowy Munich, Germany. “We should be supplying Abrams, and then the Germans will give the Ukrainians some of their Leopard 2 tanks as well, to stop the Russian onslaught.”
That will be the urgent message they bring back to Washington on Monday, as the yearlong war has illustrated the Ukrainian intentions to not only push Russia out of occupied areas of the country, but to continue fighting for recovering at least portions of the Crimea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2015.
In a complicated diplomatic dance involving NATO allies, Germany won’t commit tanks until the U.S. does, amid concerns among some experts that such equipment might result in raising the stakes and implementing neighboring countries into a wider conflict. “It’s a time-consuming deadlock when time is not on our side,” Blumenthal said. “It’s a time of maximum danger and also opportunity. There is no realistic fear of escalation or American troops on the ground. They don’t want American troops. But they can’t win with pitchforks.”
Blumenthal believes the sooner Abrams tanks are donated to the Ukrainian cause, the better. An influx of HIMARS missiles would give Ukraine the range of 300 miles instead of the current 100 miles. The result would be the need for Russian troops and command and resupply centers to pull back even further in the depths of winter at a time when there are concerns of a major Russian offensive.
“We should be supplying them with everything we would if we were there,” Blumenthal said. “They are essentially fighting this war for NATO.” He warned that the U.S. commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization means that if any of the 28 member European nations are attacked in an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin, it would be considered an act of war by all member countries, including the U.S. and Canada.
“We need to stop the butcher, who is a war criminal and a genocidal aggressor who could keep moving westwards in attempt to destroy democracy along with restoring the old Soviet Union and Russian empire,” Blumenthal said.
This was Blumenthal’s third trip to Ukraine, but the first since last July. He said that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “is an awe-inspiring figure of historic magnitude.” He, Whitehouse and Graham also met with Ukrainian energy officials who need a steady supply of new electric transformers and other equipment to keep up with the destruction from Russian bombardments and drones targeting infrastructure.
Blumenthal acknowledged that Abrams tanks, with jet-like engines that run on diesel fuel, are difficult to maintain and Ukrainian troops would need extensive training on the equipment.
“We’re not asking for a blank check, but we’re asking for a big check,” said Blumenthal who planned to fly back with Graham and Whitehouse on Sunday. Blumenthal said he was encouraged when President Joe Biden said that Ukraine will get what it needs.
But while the America lawmakers were in Kyiv, NATO leaders meeting at a U.S. airbase in Germany continued a stalemate on the shipments of U.S. and German military armor to Ukraine.
Blumenthal said the congressional traveling party, including security personnel arrived in Kyiv on Friday morning, had meetings all day throughout the city of 3 million, then took the train back to Poland on Friday night. “People went about their business, went to work, continued their lives,” Blumenthal said. “There is no exaggerating the resilience and strength of these people. You can definitely sense there is a war, but there is no weakening of their resolve.”
The meeting with Zelenskyy was wide-ranging and lasted about 45 minutes, Blumenthal said. “We talked about a lot of issues in detail. We told him there was strong bipartisan support. He’s an enormously charming, unassuming, down-toearth but strong personality.
The Senate group also held a news conference for local Ukrainian news outlets.
“If Putin is successful in Ukraine and is not prosecuted under international law, everything we’ve said since World War II becomes a joke,” Graham said.
On Saturday, they left Poland for Germany and would have flown home but their flight was cancelled because of a snowstorm.
Connecticut manufactures numerous components and munitions for the military.
“I think retaking Crimea is not out of the realm of possibility,” Blumenthal said, noting that diplomats and military officials on both sides will be the ones to decide on any terms of a peace. “I think this bipartisan effort will enable them to decide what will realistically be possible for them to achieve.”
Upon his return, Blumenthal wants to also work toward strengthening sanctions against Russian oligarchs linked to Putin. A recent effort by the U.S. Senate to declare Russia a state sponsor of terror, failed in the House of Representatives.