Responding to President Biden’s speech announcing the first tranche of U.S. sanctions responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Senator Ben Sasse said, “Today’s sanctions are too little too late.”
The president announced a set of sanctions cutting certain Russian banks off from U.S. financial markets and blocking purchases of Russian sovereign debt. He also said measures targeting Russian elites and their families would be announced tomorrow.
The latest sanctions followed yesterday’s moves to prevent Americans from doing business with Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russian breakaway regions that Vladimir Putin recognized as independent yesterday, laying the groundwork for a future military assault.
Sasse’s comments, made in a statement following Biden’s speech this afternoon, are a good indication of where GOP defense hawks are on the administration’s response to the Russian military threat against Ukraine.
“First, these sanctions should have happened before Putin further invaded Ukraine — not after. Second, economic sanctions now need to more aggressively target Putin’s oligarchs to make sure they feel real pain. Third, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that today’s incremental sanctions will deter Putin from trying to install a puppet government in Kyiv,” said Sasse.
The Nebraska Republican also urged the Biden administration to focus on helping “the Ukrainian resistance hold on for as long as possible.”