Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
January 19, 2022 | Portman Difference
In an interview this morning on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino, Senator Portman shared insights from his recent trip to Ukraine, in which he met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the ongoing threat posed by Russia.
Portman underscored the importance of bipartisan support for Ukraine and made clear that Russia will face severe economic consequences if they invade their sovereign neighbor.
A transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here.
PORTMAN ON THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE:
“Well, it’s very troubling. He has amassed over 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine. And I was very pleased to see those strong words from Secretary Blinken. They echo what we were saying over the last couple of days in Ukraine, which is that the United States unequivocally stands with the Ukraine that has turned to the west, turned toward democracy, freedom. They don’t want to go back to an authoritarian past. I think this is why President Putin feels such a threat. It’s not that Ukraine threatens Russia in any way except for the fact that they’re a democracy that’s thriving. And so we need to stand with them, as do our European allies, our NATO allies and other freedom loving countries all around the world. And we’re seeing a strong stand against what might happen. The question is, can we convince the Russians that this would be a terrible mistake, which I believe it would be, both in terms of the bloody costs that they will entail in Ukraine because Ukrainian people are ready to defend themselves. But second, with regard to devastating sanctions that the United States and other countries are ready to impose.
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“Well, the ministers we met with, we met with all of them, the Defense Minister and the Interior Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Energy Minister, as well as President Zelenskyy. They were all in one mind, which is that they are unified and the country is unified against the possibility of Russian invasion of any type. And the mention of cyber-attacks is significant because they just had a huge cyber attack on their institutions last week. So this is a Russian–backed effort that’s sort of a hybrid war, as they say. It’s not just the military part of it. There’s other ways they’re trying to destabilize the government. So the government’s unified, the country’s unified. I will say, Dana, to your question, they want to know that we’re with them and that other countries are as well. I believe that’s true. I’d like to see more, frankly, from Germany in terms of public statements of support, that no matter what happens, that they will not move forward with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, as an example, which would be a weapon in the hands of Vladimir Putin and the Russians, should it be completed and should it be certified?”
PORTMAN ON THE PROSPECTS OF UKRAINE INCLUSION IN NATO:
“Well, the concessions he’s asking for are outrageous, not anything that we or the NATO countries would ever give. NATO has an open-door policy. We’re not making the decision as to whether Ukraine is eligible for NATO. They’re making that decision. They’d have to go through steps. But if they want to pursue that, it’s within their sovereign independent ability to do that, we can’t stop countries from being able to join NATO. And that’s one of the conditions that Vladimir Putin has talked about publicly. My hope is that we can continue the dialogue. There are probably areas of agreement we can find in terms of transparency and other issues, but not the fundamental right of NATO to have an open-door policy.”
PORTMAN ON WHY THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE IS IMPORTANT TO THE U.S.
“Well, first, because it’s not just about Ukraine. This is about the stability of Europe. Think about it, Dana, not since World War II have we seen these kind of territorial incursions. They’ve already taken part of Ukraine, and that would be Crimea. They’ve also come into the Eastern part of Ukraine, that’s the Donbas region, totally against every international law on the books. And so it wouldn’t stop there. And it does affect the people of Ukraine, who are our allies and our friends. But it also is about the stability of Europe and therefore affects the United States and all freedom loving countries in a very direct way.
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“Well, I’m more concerned than ever, given the intelligence we were able to get over there which I won’t go into in detail. But it’s true, as you have reported, that they not only have 100,000 troops or so, that they’re bringing additional heavy equipment and troops into the area so that Russia is doing things that are definitely provocative, aggressive, unwarranted. I was encouraged, however, by the unity that I saw in the country and the unity that I heard in terms of our allies. When we were there the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Canada and Germany were both in town as well. So this is a serious situation. It needs to be treated as such. And all of us, all freedom loving countries, not just NATO allies, but all of us need to stand firm.”
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