‘Our task is to arm the Ukrainians, not fight the war,’ says one GOP senator.
‘Our task is to arm the Ukrainians, not fight the war,’ says one GOP senator.
‘S trong doesn’t mean big,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said toward the end of his virtual address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. “Strong is brave and ready to fight for the life of his citizens and citizens of the world, human rights for freedom, for the right to live decently and to die when your time comes.”
Members of Congress were visibly moved by Zelensky’s speech, but the address didn’t result in any surge of support for Zelensky’s request for a no-fly zone enforced by American pilots or pilots from other NATO countries over the skies of Ukraine.
On Wednesday afternoon, more than a dozen Republican senators held a press conference calling on the Biden administration to ship more weapons — including fighter jets — to Ukraine, but none of them called for U.S. forces to enforce a no-fly zone.
“President Biden should allow those MiGs to go to Ukraine today — not flown by American pilots; we should not put American servicemen and women in harm’s way,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas). “But flown by Ukrainian pilots so that the Ukrainian people can defend their homeland from Putin’s aggression.”
“If it shoots, we should ship it,” said Nebraska senator Ben Sasse.
“Our task is to arm the Ukrainians, not fight the war,” Kansas GOP senator Jerry Moran told National Review after the press conference. The proposal of a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine — which would likely result in direct conflict between American and Russian forces — has gained a lot of attention in the press but little traction in the Senate GOP caucus. Moran said he is under the impression that no more than a few senators were supportive of American pilots operating in Ukraine.
Mississippi GOP senator Roger Wicker said on February 28 that the United States should “seriously consider” a no-fly zone, but Florida GOP senator Marco Rubio immediately said that “would mean World War III,” and Missouri GOP senator Roy Blunt said: “They’re not a NATO country, as much as we want to help them. I don’t think we can get in a situation where we’re almost asking for engagement.”
Since Wicker floated the idea, only a small number of House Republicans — including Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Maria Salazar of Florida — have called for a no-fly zone. (Salazar clarified on Wednesday she only thinks the proposal shouldn’t be taken off the table.) And a couple of Senate Republicans have taken a half-step toward backing one. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has said that he opposes a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone now but would back one if Russia uses chemical weapons, and Florida GOP senator Rick Scott wrote in a statement on Wednesday that “President Biden needs to make a decision TODAY: either give Ukraine access to the planes and anti-aircraft defense systems it needs to defend itself, or enforce a no-fly zone to close Ukrainian skies to Russian attacks.”
But Wicker himself is backing away from the idea for now. “I’ve realized that not enough people are at that position yet,” Wicker told National Review on Wednesday. The Mississippi senator is now pushing for what he called “a less-escalatory alternative” — a humanitarian airlift — and handed this reporter a photocopy of a few Wall Street Journal columns making the case for it.
Asked whether he is aware of any GOP colleagues who support a no-fly zone enforced by American pilots over Ukraine, Wicker said: “There are some people out there who’ve been to war who know what they’re talking about and are not jingos that support the idea of a no-fly zone, and they’re easy to find in the editorial pages. Talk to Wes Clark.” Clark, the retired general and former Democratic presidential candidate, has backed a no-fly zone.
But the overwhelming position of the Republican caucus is to arm the Ukrainians to the teeth without sending American pilots or ground troops to Ukraine.
“I don’t think anybody’s advocating American pilots enforce the no-fly zone,” Texas senator John Cornyn said of his Senate GOP colleagues attending the Wednesday press conference, “but we ought to provide the Ukrainians the means to enforce it on their own.”
“Nobody wants a war with Russia — certainly not between the United States and Russia — but Russia has declared war on the people of Ukraine, and we ought to become once again the arsenal of democracy,” Cornyn told NR. “No one here is advocating U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine or in the skies above.”
“We’re not going to move to a no-fly zone, but we should be getting them the MiGs they need,” Utah GOP senator Mitt Romney told NR.
While President Zelensky pushed for a no-fly zone in his Wednesday address to Congress, he proposed an alternative if that proved “too much to ask.” “You know what kind of defense systems we need, S-300 and other similar systems,” he said. Hours later, President Biden announced an arms shipment that would include drones and antiaircraft systems. But President Biden still hasn’t relented from his opposition to sending fighter jets to Ukraine.