WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tuesday marks four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. The invasion has tested Ukrainians and their partners, pushing back on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s quest to conquer Ukraine.
Our own news team has covered the war in Ukraine and the refugee crisis in Poland. We shared stories of the war’s devastation. We asked congressional members on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees what it would take to finally end the war in Ukraine:
“The President and his administration have to decide is Vladimir Putin friend or foe,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D- MI). “Is that someone we really want to cozy up to really bring down the hammer on to get a deal and until now, the President has rolled out the red carpet in Alaska for him. They did all kinds of cozying up together but it still hasn’t produced a deal when the President said he would get it done. So, if the carrot doesn’t work, when do we get tough on Russia and I think for me until we do that, we’re gonna be in this limbo.”
We also asked Rep. Jack Bergman, (R- MI):
“I think it’s very tough to find an end state because Russia has shown, again in the words of my Finnish colleagues when I was over there about a month ago, that Russia has shown they do not have the ability to change,” said Rep. Bergman. “Whether its Putin or anybody else, the Russian culture is what’s going to be for the foreseeable future. So, whether its Ukraine today, Poland tomorrow, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, pick your Baltic country or bordering state. Unfortunately, Russia is unable to change. I don’t have an answer to that, other than we, the NATO alliance and other countries, show the Russians we’re not gonna slow down.”
There have been several meetings between Russia, Ukraine and the US, trying to find a resolution to this. Four years after Russia invaded, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has not broken Ukrainians.
