Mississippi senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, celebrated the Biden administration’s move to send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine (which was followed by Germany’s announcement that it will be sending more than a dozen of its own Leopard 2 tanks), but said that the move has been months delayed. In a statement to National Review, Wicker said:
The provision of a significant quantity of tanks from both the United States and Germany is a welcome development, but it is important for Congress to ensure that we follow through on this commitment. The swift outfitting and delivery of these tanks and training of their operators is crucial to enabling Ukraine to push back the Russians. Every moment we delay the authorization of advanced systems like these tanks runs the risk of giving Putin the foothold that he needs to prevail. This decision should have been made months ago.
Wicker joins two other Republican House-committee chairmen who have previously criticized the Biden administration’s “hand-wringing” over whether to send tanks and other weapons systems to Ukraine, which is currently engaged in a counteroffensive.
Republican opponents of ongoing assistance to Ukraine’s war effort are vocal. However, senior Republican lawmakers in this Congress demonstrate by their recent affirmations that they remain steadfast in their long-standing advocacy of U.S. support for the Ukrainian military, while simultaneously calling for greater oversight over such weapons transfers.