U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (third from left), Representative Steny Hoyer (center), and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual address to the U.S. Congress March 16 at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in the Congressional Auditorium in Washington. COLUMBIA REGION. (Sarabet Money/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s words to lawmakers were “quite remarkable” and that they were “thankful” for his help.
She acknowledged his repeated calls for the West to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but did not elaborate.
“(We) are grateful to him for being grateful to the United States for everything we have done and for what President Biden has done,” she said. “A call for a no-fly zone, but if you can’t do that, then some other possibilities and identification with our own challenges to our democracy. the cruelty of the Russians, these are their war crimes right before our eyes,” she added, referring to the video he played of the terrorist attacks in Ukraine.
She said the House of Representatives is working on legislation in the next couple of days, but didn’t go into details or answer any more questions.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Zelenskiy’s address to Congress “an incredibly effective speech” and said “the message to President Biden is that he needs to step up his game.” This largely reflected the reaction of GOP senators after the speech, and differed from Democrats, who defended Biden’s actions as effective and progressive.
Republican Party spokesman Mike McCall, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was very excited about the video that was shown during Zelensky’s speech, saying: “We have to help Ukraine, give them everything they need to fight this war, and the video that we saw very reminiscent of Nazi Germany. … And history will judge us. What did you do? What were you doing when the bombing started? When maternity hospitals were bombed and pregnant women were taken out – blood, children, what did you do?
“History will judge us if we do not act now and if we do not act decisively,” McCall said. “Now is not the time for party rhetoric; it’s time to unite the nation behind Ukraine against one of the most evil forces we’ve seen since my father’s war – and that’s World War II, Adolf Hitler.”
Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the GOP leadership, told CNN that he was concerned about the creation of a no-fly zone.
“I mean, every time you launch American pilots and American planes into the sky, with Russian pilots and planes in the sky, you really run the risk that we can go into combat at a level that I think we not ready. k,” Blunt said.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly also expressed concern about the introduction of a no-fly zone and was skeptical of the idea of transferring aircraft to Ukraine, suggesting that it would not be an efficient use of resources. It is open to new sanctions and the provision of additional defense systems such as surface-to-air missiles. Kelly, who is running for re-election, also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal” and said that US President Joe Biden “should” call him that. “Call it like it is,” he said.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said anti-tank, anti-aircraft, and stinger missiles are “much more effective.”
Republican Party spokesman Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the US Congressional Caucus on Ukraine, who was in Kyiv at the time he was an FBI agent, supports a restricted no-fly zone. He said there are other ways to enforce it besides shooting down planes, such as through technologies such as electromagnetic pulse and hydroacoustic radar.
“We have to support the humanitarian no-fly zone,” Fitzpatrick said. “Otherwise, the only way out is to kill innocent people.”
Republican Senator Rick Scott, a member of the leadership, went further into the no-fly zone than most in his party, saying in a statement, “President Biden must make a decision TODAY: either give Ukraine access to the aircraft and anti-aircraft defense systems he needs to self-defense or enforce a no-fly zone to close Ukrainian skies from Russian attacks.”