Republican senators urge Obama not to negotiate with Putin over Ukraine
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have lashed out at President Barack Obama over his failed policy in Ukraine, urging him not to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the hawkish senators called on the president not to “hide behind a failed attempt to negotiate with an aggressor when conditions on the ground render diplomacy ineffective.”
The lawmakers accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Obama of legitimizing the “dismemberment of a sovereign nation in Europe for the first time in seven decades.”
Last week, Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko agreed with a ceasefire deal for Ukraine.
The negotiating sides agreed on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Ukraine’s frontlines and a ceasefire.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council called on all sides in eastern Ukraine to cease fighting and implement the European-brokered peace deal that came into effect on February 14.
“It is inexcusable to adhere to a failed ceasefire agreement as Russia and its Ukrainian proxies escalate their uncompromising siege” of Debaltseve, a city in eastern Ukraine, according to McCain and Graham.
“Western leaders say there is no military solution to the conflict in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin clearly does not think so,” they claimed.
“He continues his aggression, and in the absence of greater Western support for Ukrainian forces, a Russian-imposed military solution is exactly what will continue to unfold in Ukraine,” they said.
Meanwhile, President Putin said Ukrainian forces are being supplied with Western weapons and warned that the move would only contribute to higher casualty figures.
He also expressed optimism about the potential success of a truce pact for eastern Ukraine.
Nearly 5,700 people have been killed and close to a million have been displaced since the armed conflict began in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.
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