On Ukraine, European leaders and top senators are in sync

WASHINGTON — Senators who hope to pass a package of Russia-related bills sometime soon are hoping to leverage gathering momentum in both Washington and Europe to dry up more of Russia’s pool of warfighting funds.

But Ukraine still lacks all the weapons its leader says the country needs to defend itself, starting with Tomahawk cruise missiles — and it is not clear if those systems will ever be sent or if America will ever again spend its own appropriations to arm Ukraine.

In Washington, once lawmakers resolve the impasse over funding the government, a bipartisan group of senators is hoping for what they are calling “Russia Week” — a chance to pass bills such as broad Russia sanctions and legislation spelling out a process to send to Ukraine $5 billion in frozen Russian assets under U.S. jurisdiction.

The week of Oct. 20 was something of a Russia Week in its own right. The European Union took action in just the areas the Senate wants to explore, and then some, and so did President Donald Trump in a limited but potentially significant way.

Trump said Oct. 22 that he would sanction Russia’s two largest energy producers — and then India and China almost immediately took steps to cut back on some purchases of Russian crude oil.

Trump said, though, that he hoped the sanctions would only be needed for a short while.

The next day, in what officials said was a coordinated plan, the EU echoed Trump’s move with an announcement of its own of new Russia sanctions and plans to decide by the year’s end on a mechanism to aid Ukraine with some $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, held mostly in Belgium.

“There is increasing recognition that those assets must be used to support Ukraine’s effort, and the Europeans have a path to do it that uses those assets, in effect, as collateral or as security,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a leading proponent of Ukraine.

The EU also instituted other sanctions and swore off future purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas.

Tomahawk’s chop

Those actions will over time diminish President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. But they will not help Ukraine in the interim.

For the foreseeable future, Ukraine’s defense funds will not likely be augmented by U.S. appropriations, due to Trump’s opposition, though European-financed U.S. weapons may continue to flow to Ukraine.

In the last month, though, Trump has incrementally helped Ukraine more than before, though not with what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv most needs now: Tomahawk missiles, capable of sending a 1,000-pound warhead flying 1,000 miles and striking military targets deeper inside Russia.

In London on Oct. 24, there was a meeting of leaders of the “coalition of the willing” — the 26 nations that have backed Ukraine and now must spend more to keep doing so in the absence of U.S. financial contributions. Trump was effectively present despite his absence.

That was clear at a press conference after the leaders met, when Washington’s contributions to the fight — or lack thereof — were among the leading topics.

The arguably most pressing question was about the significance of Trump denying Zelenskyy’s request for Tomahawks in a meeting earlier this month, after Trump had publicly said he was considering the request.

In Washington on Oct. 22, the GOP chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees suggested that Ukraine’s need for that missile capability is pressing.

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Mike D. Rogers of Alabama urged Trump in a joint statement to back up his new sanctions with other measures, including not just arming Ukraine with the Tomahawks but also acting on his own authority to take the steps espoused by the Russia bills that the Senate hopes to soon debate.

“The United States should work with our allies to intensify the pressure of those sanctions, including by ending all imports of Russian energy, using frozen Russian sovereign assets held in the United States and Europe for additional security assistance, and leveraging European funding to provide Tomahawk missiles alongside the United Kingdom and the Netherlands,” Wicker and Rogers said. “Germany should reinforce this effort by sending Taurus missiles too.”

‘More strong instruments’

European leaders seemed to take pains last week not to criticize Trump for his approach to Ukraine, perhaps so as not to disrupt his recent signs of more support for Kyiv’s defense.

Still, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, when asked Friday about Tomahawks, said it was “really important” that Ukraine possess “long-range” missiles.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did not say Trump had rejected sending Tomahawks but rather that Zelenskyy’s request for the missiles is “under review,” which is technically the case.

Ukraine “has a right obviously to defend itself, particularly of course against all the attacks by Russia, and that includes striking targets in Russia with long-range weapons,” Rutte noted.

Zelenskyy, for his part, said there is no plan to defeat Putin that does not include U.S. help. He lauded America’s provision of Army Tactical Missile Systems — though “not a big number,” he noted — as well as the provision of Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Both of those systems have a range less than 200 miles.

The Trump administration has allowed Storm Shadow attacks on Russian territory using U.S. targeting data. Earlier this year, the U.S. reportedly withheld some intelligence support from Ukraine for a period but then restored it.

“Now we count on some more strong instruments, but we will see,” Zelenskyy said, in an apparent reference to Tomahawks.

Show of strength

The bills the Senate may take up in a Russia Week include not just the sanctions measure by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Blumenthal and the one on tapping frozen Russian assets under U.S. jurisdiction.

Other options include a bill that would require sanctions on people or entities from China that aid Russia’s military.

And a fourth measure teed up for possible Senate consideration is a bill that would require that Russia be declared a state sponsor of terrorism unless it repatriates Ukrainian children that Russians have abducted.

“The time is now to show strength,” Blumenthal said. “Putin understands only strength and force — military and economic.”