The United States should be committed to ensuring victory in the Ukraine to stop a “genocide” now occurring there, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said during a Sunday interview.
Cheney was interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper for the “State of the Union” series to discuss the Russian war with Ukraine and the steps the U.S. must take to combat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts in the war.
“I think that it’s crucially important that the United States be clear that we are absolutely committed to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s victory,” she said. “We should not be talking about…improving Zelenskyy’s position at the negotiating table. This is about defeating Russian forces in Ukraine.”
However, she elaborated that the situation with Russia was about much more than its invasion of the Ukraine. Cheney said the U.S. needed to quickly outfit the Ukrainian people with advanced weaponry in order to fight against Russian forces.
She felt both offensive weapons, such as tanks and planes, and defense systems such as anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles would be appropriate to provide to Ukraine in this situation, which she referred to as a “genocide.”
“I think we need to do everything that (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy says he needs at this point, given the unbelievable battle that they have put up,” she said. “I think this clearly is genocide. I think Europe needs to understand and grapple with the fact that you’ve got a genocidal campaign that we’ve seen in recent decades.”
However, she said she did not think sending U.S. troops into Ukraine would be necessary for the time being.
Europe needs to reconcile the fact that it is funding Putin’s genocidal campaign with its purchases Russian oil and gas, Cheney said.
While Cheney said she understood the economic consequences that western European counties could see if the nation were to impose an oil and gas embargo on Russia as the United States has done, she said it was critical it still be done.
“We need to do everything we can to increase our own domestic production to help make sure that we can supply them with as much as possible,” she said. “But they need to understand that every single time, every single day that they are continuing to import Russian oil and gas, they’re funding Putin’s genocide in Ukraine.”
Tapper noted that the Ukrainian president has posed “baffling and challenging existential” questions about the existence of the United Nations, the U.N. Security Council and NATO and their efficacy.
Cheney said there was a clear line between the United Nations and NATO, which she called was the most effective and successful military alliance in history. As for the U.N., she said “real questions” have been raised about whether it can accomplish or is accomplishing any of the objectives for which it was created.
“When you have Russia sitting on the Security Council…I think the United Nations, I think that it has demonstrated that it is not the kind of effective entity people hoped it would be when it was created,” she said. “I think NATO is very different. NATO has now worked to make sure that we are coming to the defense of our allies and that we are doing everything that we can do. We need to do more to help to support Ukraine and help to support the Ukrainian people.”
