03.29.22

Hoeven Joins Colleagues Asking White House for Update, Clarity on U.S. Lethal Aid Provided to Ukraine

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, joined Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in urging the Biden administration’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan to clarify the speed, specifics and supply of lethal aid the United States is providing to Ukraine. In the letter, the senators press for a strategy to help ensure Ukraine returns to sovereignty and freedom following Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine that started more than one month ago. 

“The U.S. mission in Ukraine must go beyond ensuring the country merely has the means to defend itself against Russian aggression. The strategy must deliver Ukraine necessary weapons to defend itself, counter the Russian forces’ advance, and give the Ukrainian people a chance to win this war. Success cannot be a Russian-occupied Ukraine – it must be a free, independent, and sovereign Ukraine. Authoritarianism cannot prevail in this conflict. Defending freedom in Ukraine is defending freedom everywhere,” the senators wrote. 

In addition to Hoeven, Ernst and Gillibrand, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.).

Click here for the full text of the letter.  

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