U.S. lawmakers: “Putin won’t stop in Ukraine”

Amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine, key U.S. lawmakers are looking at the potential implications of next moves, as Congress debates sanctions on the Kremlin, TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports.

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, held a hearing on Wed, Feb 2, on “Russia’s assault on Ukraine”.

The event came just hours after the Pentagon announced its plan to send forces to Poland, Romania and Germany to bolster NATO's eastern flank, while more forces remain on standby.

"The US and our Allies will not back down in the face of the Kremlin’s aggression, and we are ready to respond to any threat to the peace and liberty of Europe,” Senator. Ben Cardin, the Helsinki Commission's chair, said opening the debate.

"The Kremlin's threat menaces not only Ukraine, our partners in Georgia, and the wider region but also the long cherished dream and long standing bipartisan U.S. policy to work towards a Europe whole and free," he added.

For Congressman Steve Cohen, Co-Chair of the Commission, Putin is threatening his neighbor Ukraine simply because they dare pursue the path of democracy, accountable governance, and trans-Atlantic integration. "It’s a developing democracy; it’s not perfect, of course…and can only become a better democracy if allowed to breathe, and live, and be free..."

Putin, he said, "won’t stop at Ukraine…The Russians are looking for trouble and, even if their tanks win, they will lose... Inevitably, they will lose.”

“We’re at the stage of some type of major possible war in Europe, a subject that should have been left in the Dark Ages, not part of the future of mankind…” – Cohen added.

For Senator Roger Wicker, Russian forces “threaten not only Ukraine, but also they cause concerns for our friends in Poland, for the Baltic states, for the United States”. "If you're concerned about our status in the world... you're concerns about Ukraine today"

During the hearing, lawmakers heard expert testimonies into Ukraine and Russia from high profile witnesses.

Former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill told lawmakers Moscow may feel emboldened by developments in Eurasia, and look at the U.S.' role in addressing upheavals.

Putin knows Russian history inside out, "but he also has his very own version of history", Hill said. "The Kremlin and Putin have long deployed Russia values and Russian history as weapons in their conduct of information warfare, especially when it comes to Ukraine."

If Putin launches a further incursion into Ukraine on this basis with no international condemnation or backlash, then this will set a global precedent for other countries engaged in territorial disputes and threatening their neighbors’ sovereignty.

Russia, she reminded, “exploited the 2020 war to introduce its military forces into Nagorno-Karabakh under the guise of peacekeepers... Russia has now moved to broker and manage Armenia’s future relations with both Azerbaijan and Turkey, sidelining the OSCE Minsk Group that previously managed international diplomacy in Nagorno-Karabakh,”  Hill, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said.

Helsinki Commission's Co-Chair Cohen addressed Putin directly at the end of the hearing, suggesting he "pour himself some vodka, enjoy the Winter Olympics", and “chill.”

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.