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US war hawks visit Ukraine, meet Zelensky

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, on Thursday, met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Photo by the Ukrainian president's office)

A bipartisan pair of US war hawks, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, on Thursday met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who implored the lawmakers for more weapons.

Blumenthal and Graham have been two of the most ardently anti-Russia voices in the US Congress.

The Ukrainian president called on Graham and Blumenthal to push the Biden administration to supply Ukraine with air defense systems.

Zelensky also appreciated Blumenthal and Graham’s efforts to have the US Congress classify Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. 

Zelensky told the Americans that the military situation in Ukraine is “certainly difficult, yet controlled,” according to the Ukrainian president’s office.  

According to Moscow, Russian and Donbas forces recently pushed Kiev’s military out of the entire Lugansk People’s Republic, and, inflicted more than 5,000 casualties and destroyed hundreds of tanks and other pieces of military hardware over the last two weeks.

Graham also visited Ukraine in 2017 with the late Arizona Senator John McCain, where he told Ukrainian marines that he would “take [their] case to Washington” and ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin pays “a heavier price.”

Blumenthal was in the group of lawmakers that traveled to Ukraine and with Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials.

Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and were also in that group.

Commenting to Press TV, American journalist Don DeBar then said, “This is a freaking war party. Senator Shaheen, for example, at a hearing for the US intelligence propaganda outlets under the Broadcast Board of Governors, called Russian news services ‘agencies of propaganda’ and said their presence in the US market was ‘an act of war, with a body count.’”

“If Donald Trump's presidency set the standard to allow observers to issue remote diagnoses of mental illness, Shaheen is, to use the appropriate clinical term, a genocidal maniac,” he added.

“Or, in plain English, she is out of her freakin' mind, seemingly obsessed with making war with Russia. And she is the sanest of that delegation,” the analyst noted.

The United States has imposed sanctions on over 100 targets and banned the import of new Russian gold, in a further ratcheting up of Washington’s offensive against Moscow over its military action against the Kiev government.

The US Treasury Department in a statement said last week it imposed sanctions on 70 entities as well as 29 people, in line with commitments made by the world's wealthiest nations (G7).

The Treasury said the sanctioned entities are critical to Russia's defense industrial base.

The Treasury also sanctioned United Aircraft Corporation, the maker of Russia's MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets and which is majority-owned by Rostec.

The US Treasury said this aims to "weaken Russia's ability to continue its aerial assault on Ukraine."

US President Joe Biden has long been pushing Europe to take a stance against Russia. Experts, however, say his domestic struggles at home may impede his ability to lead the European Union against Moscow.

Biden placed an embargo on Russian oil earlier this year, shortly after Putin declared a military campaign against Ukraine on February 24.


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