Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson and other Trumpist Republicans who are blocking desperately needed aid for Ukrainians should come to Ukraine and see the war with their own eyes. I wrote about this in my column for The Washington Post columnist Max Booth, who recently also visited Ukraine.
He noted that a typical morning in Ukraine begins with an air raid and a trip to a bomb shelter, where sometimes you have to sit for hours. Although most Russian missiles and drones are intercepted by air defense forces, some manage to break through.
“In Dnepr we visited an apartment building where at least 64 people had previously been killed in a Russian missile attack. Quite horrifyingly, we could still see clothes hanging in a closet on the top floor – evident as the entire front wall of the building had disappeared “Other Russian missiles hit hospitals, schools and shopping centers in the area. These are targets that have no military significance, the destruction of which is a crime against humanity,” the observer says.
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Max But also shares his impressions of a trip to Kharkov, which is constantly being bombarded with rockets. Half the buildings in the city stand with their windows covered with plywood, the best hotel in the city is destroyed, and children study in an underground school in the subway or just online.
“I was amazed at the Ukrainian ingenuity in turning five subway stations into schools, but was heartbroken at the need to do it,” the columnist writes.
Booth tells how he went to Northern Saltovka, a residential area of Kharkov, where not a single high-rise building survived. There he met an elderly woman who spoke in tears about the terrible first months of the war, when the Russians bombarded the area with artillery every day.
“I would like to console her and tell her that she is safe now, but the evidence suggests otherwise. (…) The war continues – with no end in sight. Putin has mobilized more troops, put his economy on martial law and bought weapons from Iran and North Korea. It’s difficult for Ukraine to keep up,” the columnist writes.
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Booth notes that Ukraine now has problems replenishing the army with soldiers and a shortage of weapons. And if the first is the business of the Ukrainians themselves, then the West is to blame for the shortage of weapons, the columnist notes.
“I think that [спикера Палаты представителей Майка] Johnson, who says he is a devout Christian, may be moved by the suffering of the Ukrainians – and their pleas for more US support. But Johnson has not been to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and has not indicated any plans to visit. This worries me. It’s easier to stab people in the back if you don’t want to look them in the eye,” writes Washington Post columnist Max Boot.
Situation with US assistance to Ukraine
As UNIAN wrote, last week the US Senate began considering an alternative bill on military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, from which the problematic part about the US-Mexico border was removed. On Sunday, senators cleared the final bureaucratic hurdle, potentially paving the way for the aid to be approved at the Senate level as soon as this week.
But the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, dominated by Republicans led by Trumpist Mike Johnson, must also give its consent to the allocation of assistance to US foreign partners. He has so far avoided making specific promises on this bill. At the same time, he says that Israel needs urgent help, and does not remember Ukraine, although the situation here is much more difficult.
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2024-02-12 15:14:00
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