Interviewed by Norah O'Donnell on Sunday night’s CBS 60 Minutes program, Democratic Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said the US may one day have to intervene in the war in Ukraine and send troops to the combat zone.
“We cannot allow Ukraine to fall. If this happens, there is a significant possibility that America will have to intervene in a conflict not only with our money, but also with our military personnel,” Jeffries said.
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The house leader added that if Russian President Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine, he “will not stop” in pursuit of his goal to recreate the Soviet Union, in turn threatening NATO countries; furthermore, there are lessons to be learned from the invasion of neighboring Georgia and the illegal takeover of Crimea.
“Are we to believe that in the face of this kind of consistent aggression that if we allow Vladimir Putin to succeed in Ukraine that he's only going to stop in Ukraine? Of course not," Jeffries said.
He went on to accuse pro-Putin members of the Republican party of delaying the approval by Congress of the long-awaited bill to provide $61 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, which made the possibility of a need for future US military intervention that bit closer.
Citing Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the Intelligence Committee, who both said in separate interviews in April that Russian propaganda had infiltrated the GOP, Jeffries added: “There is a growing pro-Putin faction in the Republican party that does not want to support Ukraine and believes for some reason that Russia is not an enemy of the United States of America.”
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Jeffries went on to specifically point the finger at Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who he said was the leading supporter of Russia [in the House].
“Check the record,” he said. “That's the reality of who she is, what she's said, and her belief system.”
French President Emmanuel Macron talked about sending Western troops to Ukraine at the end of February after which France said there was a coalition of countries, including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and possibly Poland, who were potentially ready to send troops to Ukraine if it became necessary to prevent a Russian victory.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Minister David Cameron said that the appearance of Western troops in Ukraine would make the situation worse.
In turn, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in mid-March that “Kyiv does not need foreign troops in the conflict zone – as long as Ukraine holds out.”
The Kremlin warned that the appearance of Western troops in Ukraine would lead to an inevitable clash between Russia and NATO. “This will be one step away from a full-scale third world war. I think that hardly anyone is interested in this,” Putin said.
In the Senate, 15 Republicans, including Senator JD Vance of Ohio, voted against the bill to provide more aid for Ukraine. Vance said in a New York Times op-ed in April that Ukraine has insufficient manpower and military strength which US support would be unable to change.
Jeffries pointed out that Ukraine had held off Russia’s forces for over two years, saying: “This has been a strategic success by any definition, and so those that want to convince the American people that the Ukrainian effort has been a failure are promoting Vladimir Putin's propaganda because the facts say the exact opposite, which is why it's important for us to finish the job. It's a Churchill or Chamberlain moment.”
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