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Several members of the Democrat Party in Congress are urging the White House to provide Kiev with significantly more military support. One representative wants the Joe Biden administration to place “non-combatant observers” on the ground in Ukraine.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) called for long-term investment in modernizing Ukraine’s military. He believes the upgraded weapons will turn the country into a “porcupine that can’t be swallowed.”
One suggestion Crow made was sending non-combatant observers to the battlefield to learn “through direct observation and communication with Ukrainian forces.” Crow did not specify if the personnel would come from the CIA, Pentagon or another agency. However, deploying any Americans on the battlefield risks them being killed by Russian soldiers.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN), are backing a plan that would send ATACM missiles to Ukraine. The rockets have a range of nearly 200 miles.
The White House has rejected several requests from Kiev to send long-range munitions to Ukraine. The Department of Defense went as far as modifying the HIMAR launchers it donated to Kiev to prevent the system from being able to fire the ATACM missiles. Recently, the Biden administration suggested it may be budging on the issue as Washington backed London sending long-range air-launched missiles to Kiev.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, called for the White House to authorize sending cluster bombs to Ukraine. Groups of Republican Representatives have sent letters to Biden demanding he fulfills Kiev’s request to send the controversial weapons.
Both Russia and Ukraine are reported to have used cluster bombs in Ukraine. Typically intended for use against personnel and light vehicles, cluster bombs carry smaller explosive submunitions which are released in flight and scattered across a target area. However, the bomblets often fail to detonate and remain on the ground as ‘duds,’ causing countless civilian deaths in former warzones, sometimes even decades into the future.
On Wednesday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was asked if he was concerned that F-16s transferred to Ukraine could be used to attack Russia. The Congressman replied, “No, I’m not concerned. I wouldn’t care if they did.” Nadler made the remarks a few days after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, told Congress, “…but I can say that we have asked the Ukrainians not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia.”
The Congressman asserted Kiev would not use F-16s in Russia. “That may be, but they’re not gonna use major weapons. Things like F-16s, they need for air defense over Ukraine so that they can provide air cover for their counterattack and things like that,” Nadler said. “They’re not gonna waste it in Russia.”
Earlier this month, Kiev carried out an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin by targeting the Kremlin with drones. Last week, a neo-Nazi faction of the Ukrainian war machine used American weapons to launch a raid inside Russia, targeting civilian homes and infrastructure.
Rep. Crow dismissed calls for more oversight regarding Washington’s massive Ukraine aid. Since Russia launched its invasion, the US has pledged Kiev almost $120 billion in mostly weapons and military equipment. “When you’re fighting for your own survival and survival of your children,” Crow said, “you tend not to tolerate malfeasance.”
John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, warned earlier this year oversight was crucial. However, Sopko – who reported on billions of dollars of American weapons that fell into the hands of the Taliban – lamented his advice was unlikely to be followed. “I’m not super optimistic that we are going to learn our lessons … learning lessons is not in our DNA in the United States, unfortunately,” Sopko said.
“There is an understandable desire amid a crisis to focus on getting money out the door and to worry about oversight later, but too often that creates more problems than it solves,” he wrote in a report submitted to Congress earlier this year. “Given the ongoing conflict and the unprecedented volume of weapons being transferred to Ukraine, the risk that some equipment ends up on the black market or in the wrong hands is likely unavoidable.”
