U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the United States should designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and start training Ukrainian pilots on using F-16 fighter jets to aid Kyiv in the Russia-Ukraine war.
F-16 Fighters
“They need the weapons system,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week” program aired on Sunday, Feb. 19—referring to Ukraine.“We’re talking about the vice president of the United States declaring that Russia is involved in crimes against humanity in Germany of all places, echoes of World War II. How can you say that—and she is correct—and not give the victim of the crime against humanity the defensive weapons they need to stop the crime?”
Graham was speaking from Munich, during the weekend of the annual Munich Security Conference, which drew attendance from nearly 5o U.S. lawmakers and hundreds of politicians worldwide this year.
“So, we need to do two things quickly,” Graham continued. “Make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law, which would make it harder for China to give weapons to Russia, and we need to start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 now.”
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According to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the decision regarding sending fighters to Ukraine is still pending.
“We have to ensure, and I think Secretary Blinken said this as well, that they have the training necessary and the capacity to use weapon systems that we provide to them,” Greenfield said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Feb. 19. “Discussions will continue over the course of the next few weeks and months, as we determine how best to support them.”
President Joe Biden in January said “no” when asked whether he would consider supplying F-16 warplanes to Ukraine.
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“I believe a decision will be imminent here when we get back to Washington that the administration will start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16,” Graham said.
State Sponsor of Terrorism Delegation
Graham also pushed the Biden administration to label Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism.”Currently, the U.S. has designated four countries as state sponsors of terrorism, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
“You label Putin’s Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism [and] you create international tribunals so we actually can try Putin and his cronies in the international court like we did after World War II,” Graham told ABC.
In a press briefing in September 2022, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the designation would not be “the most effective or strongest path forward ... to hold Russia accountable” and could carry “unintended consequences” such as affecting “the ability to deliver assistance in areas of Ukraine.”
The China Issue
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U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have voiced concerns that the ever-increasing U.S. military aid to Ukraine would incur opportunity costs on another strategic front: deterring China in the Indo-Pacific.
According to Hawley, the United States’s current commitment to delivering military aid to Ukraine is taking a toll on the nation’s ability to aid Taiwan, a self-ruled Chinese liberal democracy, from aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has announced clear intentions to claim Taiwan as its own territory.
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“And yet Congress has poured billions of dollars into Ukrainian defenses, at a time when the American people are still dealing with sky-high inflation. And there’s no end in sight,”Hawley said.
“The core problem is that our actions in Ukraine are directly affecting our ability to project force elsewhere,” he added. “Specifically, to deter China in the Pacific ... All of this means that when we pour our military power into Ukraine, that decision comes at a cost.”