On Monday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) stated that the weapons purchase deal between the U.S. and NATO is a good move and that President Zelenskyy “talked about the willingness of Ukraine to pay for weapons, that they were not expecting a hand out. We also talked to a number of European leaders who were talking about how they could continue to provide Ukraine with what they need for weapons and buy some of those weapons from the U.S.”
Co-host Joe Mathieu asked, “I would love your thoughts on this weapons arrangement that the president rolled out today, Senator, as a key lawmaker who supported the Biden administration’s efforts to arm Ukraine, what do you think of this idea, as we get to the end of the weapons package that you already approved, having NATO buy American weapons and provide them to Kyiv? Will Ukraine get what it needs? Is this sustainable?”
Shaheen responded, “Well, I think it’s an important step forward. At the NATO Summit, I had a chance to meet with President Zelenskyy. He talked about the willingness of Ukraine to pay for weapons, that they were not expecting a hand out. We also talked to a number of European leaders who were talking about how they could continue to provide Ukraine with what they need for weapons and buy some of those weapons from the U.S. Of course, NATO is the best way to do that. And we know that we have seized Russian assets in Europe, hundreds of millions — billions of dollars in those seized assets. There is interest coming in on what’s — the holdings of those assets that can be used for some of these weapons purchases. So, I think however we can make that work is important, because the most critical thing is to ensure that Ukraine gets what it needs to continue the conduct of this war, to fight back against Russia, and that we put significant pressure on Vladimir Putin and Russia to get to the negotiating table. The fact is, I am pleased to see the turnaround in President Trump’s language. He finally seems to understand that he’s been played by Vladimir Putin for months. And he seems to be getting serious about ensuring that we do something to put pressure on Russia.”
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