As Russian troops poured into Ukraine Thursday in the largest military invasion since World War II, the United States Senate delegation from Kansas condemned President Vladimir Putin for the assault, pressed for crippling sanctions on the Moscow government and offered prayers for the war-battered residents of the aggrieved nation.
“It’s time for the White House and our NATO partners to show strength and resolve as we stand with the people of Ukraine during the greatest breach of peace in Europe in nearly 80 years,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. “The United States must provide additional defensive aid to our Ukrainian allies and unleash severe and crippling economic sanctions on Russia.”
Helping people out
Marshall’s office is in close contact with the U.S. Department of State and urging Kansans seeking assistance with exiting Ukraine to email his office at EvacHelp@Marshall.Senate.Gov or call 785-829-9000. Staff can provide information and instructions on the process of safely evacuating Americans from Ukraine.
“My staff and I stand ready to help Kansans with family, friends and loved ones who are still trying to exit the country,” he said. “We understand the dangerous and unpredictable conditions occurring right now and stand ready to provide assistance to Kansans and all Americans seeking to return to the United States.”
An ‘unprovoked’ attack
“I am praying for Ukraine, and my heart goes out to its people as their country is attacked by Russia,” U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said. “I strongly condemn Vladimir Putin for this unprovoked attack. The United States must stand united with Ukraine and firmly on the side of freedom.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an avoidable tragedy for which Vladimir Putin is solely responsible, Moran said.
“President Biden and our allies must impose punishing sanctions on Russia’s vital economic sectors and provide humanitarian support to Ukrainian victims of Moscow’s aggression,” he said. “It is also imperative that all NATO allies remain unified against the Russian threat and ensure the security of the alliance’s eastern-most members. While this moment underscores the need for our allies to contribute more to NATO’s defense, the United States’ commitment to our NATO obligations cannot be in doubt.”
Moran said he was grateful for the U.S. military servicemembers stationed in Europe – and those who have recently deployed there — for “demonstrating to our NATO allies in Europe and around the world that the United States can be relied upon.”
Also on Thursday, Moran urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately consider a comprehensive and bipartisan sanctions package in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine must be met with severe and unified consequences,” wrote Moran in a letter to Schumer. “It is essential to demonstrate to the American public and the world that the Senate can work expeditiously and in a bipartisan manner to address matters of global security. Our friends and foes will take note of our ability — or inability — to act.”
He requested the Senate suspend planned floor activity once legislation on this matter is prepared and move without delay to “hold Putin accountable for his actions.”
Other reactions
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday night shortly after the incursion began. “Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.”
The president also said Wednesday he would allow previously blocked sanctions to take effect against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was built to transport natural gas from Russia directly to Germany. The U.S. “will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate,” he said in a statement.
A salvo of other sanctions was also expected to be announced Thursday as well.
The announcement came a day after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had taken steps to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which has yet to begin operating.
The sanctions are being imposed as the Kremlin has pressed ahead with its assault on Ukraine, with explosions heard in cities across the country as Russian troops crossed the border by land and sea, despite Moscow’s denials that an invasion was planned.
Video showed Russian armored vehicles advancing into mainland Ukraine from Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow illegally seized eight years ago. Ukrainian air-traffic controllers sealed off the country’s airspace “due to the high risk of aviation safety for civil aviation.”
In response to the attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law in his embattled nation and encouraged his compatriots to take up arms.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and the West prepared to impose punishing sanctions on Russia for an invasion that they had warned for weeks was coming but that Moscow had denied was planned.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Facebook that Russian missiles had struck Ukrainian military command centers, air bases and depots in Kyiv and the major cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro.
Russian President Vladimir Putin portrayed the incursion — which followed months of Russian military buildup along Ukraine’s borders to the north, east and south — as a move to liberate and protect eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed secessionists hold sway over a large swath of the region. He warned other countries not to intervene, saying that it would lead to “consequences you have never seen in history.”
Biden is expected to confer with other world leaders Thursday to try to coordinate a response to an act of aggression that has drawn outcry across the globe and that raised the specter of catastrophic bloodshed in Europe.
“As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history,” Zelenskyy tweeted. “Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom.”
The assault negated weeks of frantic diplomacy to try to prevent war — and indeed came as the United Nations Security Council was in the midst of discussing the crisis in an extraordinary session.
Quiet broken
The invasion shatters a three-decade stretch of relative peace in Europe, which survived two world wars and a cold one in the 20th century. Even some seasoned analysts of contemporary Russia were stunned by Putin’s decision to move in, despite all the signs pointing to just such an intention.
The West is now under heavy pressure to present a united front not only in its rhetoric but in the severity of penalties it is willing to inflict on Russia — and, as a consequence, on some of its own economies, particularly in Europe. Germany took a significant step toward that goal Wednesday when Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that his government was halting authorization of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to bring Russian gas westward.
Much of Europe relies on Russian gas to heat homes and generate electricity. More than one-third of the gas consumed by the 27-nation European Union is imported from Russia, making some member nations nervous over major confrontation with Moscow. The Biden administration says it has been working with European partners to secure other sources of energy for the Continent, although a rise in prices would be an inevitable result.
The Tribune News Service contributed to this report.
