U.S. Rep. Don Bacon calls for boosting support for Ukraine after visit to country
A trip this month to Kyiv reinforced U.S. Rep. Don Bacon's belief that the United States must boost its support for Ukraine in its war for survival against neighboring Russia.
"We can't let a larger country invade a smaller country," Bacon said after his four-day visit. "Putin will not stop with Ukraine. ... He wants to be Peter the Great, restore the Russian glory."
Bacon joined a bipartisan group that included Democratic Reps. Salud Carbajal, Jim Costa and Jimmy Panetta — all military veterans, like Bacon, and all from California — and one former senator, Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, in attending an annual Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv. It was Bacon's first trip to Ukraine.
The group flew to Warsaw, in neighboring Poland, Sept. 12, Bacon said, because direct flights into Kyiv are still too dangerous. They arrived in the Ukrainian capital at 1:30 a.m. local time, with air raid sirens blaring.
"This is how we were welcomed into Ukraine," he said.
Bacon and the other delegates met for about an hour that day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov. They also toured civilian sites targeted by Russian bombs, including the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv — one of 280 Ukrainian hospitals that have been attacked, Bacon said.
Following an overnight train ride to Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city just 18 miles from the Russian border, the group traveled by car to visit frontline military and medical units.
"What I saw in their eyes was resolve. But I could also see the pain," he said. "These guys are in the fight nonstop. ... They would rather die than lose to Russia."
Bacon said Zelenskyy reiterated to the group that he badly wants the United States to lift its restrictions on the use of long-range weapons capable of attacking military targets deep inside Russia.
Ukraine would like to carry out more attacks like the one last week on a Russian weapons arsenal, which was destroyed in a massive explosion that sent a fireball into the sky and registered on earthquake monitors.
"Such actions weaken the enemy," Zelenskyy said, according to a report by London-based news agency Reuters. "Such precision is truly inspiring."
Other key help the Ukrainian president said the country needs:
Bacon criticized the Biden administration for limiting certain long-range weapons such as U.S. Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, with a range of nearly 200 miles, and British Storm Shadow missiles, effective up to 155 miles.
Biden has been reluctant to allow Ukrainians to use weapons that reach into Russia because of fears of sparking a war with NATO. So far, though, Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't escalated even as Ukraine has launched missile attacks against military sites inside Russia, or even as Ukrainian ground forces seized territory in the Russian province of Kursk.
Bacon said he hopes to build bipartisan support for the measures Zelenskyy is seeking. He acknowledged that the strongest opposition is within his own Republican Party, particularly members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, and media commentators including Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.
"I think it's important to stand up for what's right here," Bacon said. "It's going to take leaders to stand up and be bold."
He said he has also talked to some of former President Donald Trump's advisors about his trip. Trump has said the war would end quickly if he were elected again as president, but has declined to express support for Ukraine.
"I said how important it was that President Trump be clear that he supports Ukraine, and that Russia is wrong," Bacon said.
He stressed his view that it is critical for Ukraine to prevail — not only for Ukrainians, but for NATO and the United States.
"We've got to stand behind Ukraine, because if Ukraine falls, Moldova will be next. (Russia) will be right on NATO's border," Bacon said. "You stand up to a bully. It's morally right."
; twitter.com/Steve Liewer
