Young Discusses Ukraine on CNN’s The Lead
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today joined The Lead on CNN to discuss the latest developments on the situation in Ukraine. Click here or the image above to watch.
Partial Transcript
Young on change in the Biden administration’s tone:
“To the extent the change in tone has been that we are actually going to help the Ukrainians win this war as opposed to lose slowly, I think that’s been very positive. I think the weakened state of the Russian economy, the Russian military, and the Russian state’s diplomatic respect in the world will take care of itself. It will be a byproduct of our unified efforts in the West to ensure that we properly resource Ukrainians and help see them through to a victory.”
Young on the possibility of a peace deal:
“I don’t want to overstate the extent to which it will make less possible a peace deal. I do think that we should be a lot more focused in our public statements (on) doing whatever it takes to ensure that Ukrainians win militarily. And we also need to be focused on ensuring that the United States is perceived as in this to stay, in this for the long haul. And one way we can do that through concrete measures, as opposed to things behind podiums, would be to ensure that we are able to get in place the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine as soon as possible. Open that embassy back up.
“We heard from Secretary of State Blinken before the Foreign Relations Committee today that there are now diplomats on the ground in Lviv investigating how to make that happen. But we ought to bring that that nominee to a vote so that we have an ambassador in place ASAP.
“And then when it comes to resourcing the Ukrainians, currently, Jake, it takes 72 hours between the request for certain material to be sent and for that to be delivered. We ought to be identifying ways to expedite that. There’s a piece of legislation over in the House of Representatives that would reconstitute a form of (the) Lend-Lease program that could compress that timeline somewhat. And lastly, we really need to be pressing our European allies, who’ve been on balance pretty good so far. But we need to press them to provide whatever Russian material, Russian armaments, they have that the Ukrainians already know how to use. And we can get into their hands. You know, as I colloquially say from time to time, if it shoots, we ought to be sending it.”
Young on Rep. Victoria Spartz’s call for U.S. military attaché presence as part of a returning diplomatic redeployment to Ukraine:
“One would think this would be done in conjunction with reopening the embassy. So the proper sequencing is immediately let’s vote on the ambassador, let’s open the embassy, and then let’s locate a defense attaché at that facility or in the country operating out of that embassy. But I do agree with Congresswoman Spartz, who incidentally has shown incredible leadership on behalf of her own constituents and the broader Ukrainian American diaspora.”