On Sunday, a top Republican member attacked the Biden administration for not sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine at a time when concerns about China supplying weaponry to support Russia in the ongoing year-long conflict are on the rise.
But White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said they’re providing Ukraine with the military aid needed to reclaim land captured by Russia and that China has yet to deliver military equipment.
Those Republican senators who believe the administration should draw back and concentrate more on home issues complicate the domestic politics of support for Ukraine.
The House Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman, Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, said on ABC’s “This Week” that long-range artillery and aircraft may hasten the end of the battle.
“This whole thing is taking too long,” McCaul added. And this is truly not how it had to go down.
This month, Poland and the Baltic states backed Ukraine in its effort to acquire Western fighter jets, but there have been no indications that larger countries like the United States and Britain will reverse their position and supply airplanes to Kyiv.
In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Biden stated that he is “ruling it out for now” and claimed that these weapons are not what the Ukrainians will soon require.
McCaul referred to the alliance between Russia and China as “unholy” and emphasized the dangers that could result from an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser for the White House, downplayed concerns over potential Chinese military assistance to Russia.
Sullivan states, “We have not yet seen China supply military supplies to Russia to fight the war in Ukraine.”
Sullivan noted that providing those weapons would put China in a position of “responsibility” for “the kinds of war crimes and bombardment of civilians and atrocities that the Russians are committing in Ukraine,” though he said the choice ultimately belongs to China.
Sullivan said he does not think it is in China’s interest to provide weapons to Russia, saying it would “alienate them from several countries in the world, including our European allies.” Sullivan also noted that giving those weapons.
China has presented a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine. However, Sullivan claimed that since the start of the conflict, Xi has not communicated with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president expressed a desire to share with his Chinese counterpart.
“It’s very difficult to develop any sort of peace endeavor when there’s that kind of one-sided diplomacy going on,” Sullivan added.
Biden unexpectedly visited Ukraine on Monday and reaffirmed American commitment to the country.
He received criticism from several Republican senators for not traveling to East Palestine, Ohio, where a railway crash on February 3 has raised worries about the release of dangerous chemicals.
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