WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — Though the United States has already sent an arsenal of weapons to Ukraine for defensive help, some senators are pushing the Biden administration to deliver help faster.
Iowa Republican Joni Ernst is part of a bipartisan group of senators who spent the weekend in Europe meeting with refugees and receiving briefings. Ernst has been pushing for the delivery of the fighter jets Ukraine wants.
She said she “encouraged the delivery of MIGs and I’m hopeful that we as a nation can backfill the Pols with F-16s that we are no longer using.”
“We need more javelins, we need more stingers, we need the switch blade drones to have been there
weeks ago,” said Nebraska’s Ben Sasse.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told CNN’s “State of the Union” she also supports the ideas.
“There’s a lot of us that would like to see the planes over there, and I know that Secretary of State Tony Blinken talked about it just last weekend,” Klobuchar said.
But the Soviet-era jets Ukraine wants would have to come from Poland.
“We’re asking for one-third of the Polish Air Force to be sent into Ukraine,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said. “The people of Poland, of course, want to make certain that they’re safe. They’re only a few miles away from the devastation that’s going on in Ukraine.”
The Biden administration said the United States can’t be the country that delivers them. On ABC “This Week,” Durbin explained delivering jets is dangerous and said there are other ways the U.S. can help “and would not jeopardize expanding this into World War III or even worse.”