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THE OFFICE OF SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND/PHOTO
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) joined nine of her colleagues in a congressional delegation visit to Germany and Poland over the weekend. In Germany, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand met With New York service members From The Bronx, Brooklyn And La Fargeville.
THE OFFICE OF SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND/PHOTO
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) joined nine of her colleagues in a congressional delegation visit to Germany and Poland over the weekend. In Germany, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand met With New York service members From The Bronx, Brooklyn And La Fargeville.
PLATTSBURGH — U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) joined nine of her colleagues in a congressional delegation visit to Germany and Poland over the weekend.
During the trip, the senators aimed to gain insight into the situation in Ukraine as the Russian invasion continues.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) organized the trip. She and Gillibrand were joined by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Angus King (I-Maine), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
According to a press release, the delegation first engaged with military leaders from United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) in Wiesbaden, Germany before heading to Berlin where they met with U.S. officials, German State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Andreas Michaelis and members of the Bundestat, Germany’s parliament.
The next day, they had a security briefing with leaders from the 82nd Airborne Division in Poland, who then led a roundtable discussion featuring the senators and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) helping with humanitarian needs.
The delegation visited a refugee processing center near the Ukrainian-Polish border, where they met with volunteers from World Central Kitchen.
During their final stop in Poland, the senators met with members of Ukrainian civil society, including a group of female advocates who are local government and NGO leaders in Ukraine, and State Department officials originally stationed at the embassy in Kyiv.
On their last day, they visited a U.S. Army base in Grafenwöhr, Germany, where they received a firsthand briefing on the military mission, the release said. The senators returned Sunday night.
During a press conference in Washington, D.C., that was streamed live on Ersnt’s social media channels Monday afternoon, Gillibrand said she had met with troops who were trained at Fort Drum and hailed from “every corner of New York State.”
“I think it’s incredibly important that we remember the sacrifices of our military members and diplomats that are being made every single day as we continue to respond to this crisis.”
At this moment, the military’s role is to “assure and deter,” Gillibrand continued.
“To assure our allies that we are committed to the region and to deter Russian actions that widen the conflict.”
The senator said she was pleased to learn, following the trip, that Germany had announced a deal that would decrease its reliance on Russian gas imports, “helping to further starve Putin’s war machine.”
“We’re seeing a strong unification and opposition to Putin’s unjustified, unprovoked and unwarranted war on Ukraine and in support of our democratic values and universal human rights,” she added.
Gillibrand said her main takeaway from the trip was “the deep level of desperation and urgency from the Ukrainian people.”
The female advocates asked the delegation to do four things, the first being to increase sanctions by imposing more against those who surround Putin and working with U.S. allies to ensure they are enforced in as many nations as possible, Gillibrand said.
They requested the United States increase provision of military weapons as well as the lethality of those weapons, to include Stingers and Javelins, as well as to declare Putin and his generals war criminals.
“They are,” Gillibrand said. “They have bombed schools, hospitals and innocent people.”
Lastly, the advocates asked that the United States talk about what it will do, not what it will not do.
“I want to do everything these women have asked us to do,” Gillibrand said. “I think they are right.”
The senator said the United States must do everything it can to provide aid and shelter to Ukrainian refugees, and isolate Russia from the international community.
“When President Biden visits Poland, he’ll hear from our allies and see what I saw, and I feel he will be equally moved to support these refugees.”
Unlike her Republican colleagues, Gillibrand did not explicitly express support for the United States facilitating the transfer of MiG fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine.
Responding to a reporter’s question on whether she agreed with the Biden administration’s position that such a move would be too provocative, Gillibrand said she does not discount what the administration is saying, but also understands “the perspective of my colleagues who just want to give them whatever they’ve (Ukrainians) ever asked for, which is a legitimate and understandable position.”
“I think there is a lot we can be sending them (Ukrainians) immediately without having to make that ultimate decision on those particular aircraft,” she continued. “I also know that the way they are going to win this war is not through the air, it is through the ground, so they need the ground defenses.”
Ernst said she and others are hopeful that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will uphold his previous statement greenlighting the transfer.
Ernst commented that Biden could sneeze and Russian President Vladimir Putin would likely say that it was escalatory, when he is the one who is doing the escalating.
“He is the one that has invaded a free and sovereign country, so the Ukrainians have every opportunity to fight back, and we need to enable that.”
Capito said it was no surprise, including for Putin, that the United States and NATO nations had picked a side, given ongoing support of Ukraine even before the invasion.
“I think he cannot possibly think that the world buys the fact that we are standing tall with the Ukrainians as anything more than what he knew it was going to be before he went in there.”
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