In the days after President Donald Trump falsely said that Ukraine started its war with Russia, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the president’s comments were “just wrong.”
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan on Thursday reasserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “started this war by invading Ukraine,” though Sullivan did not directly criticize Trump’s recent statements.
Murkowski’s was some of the harshest criticism from congressional Republicans directed at Trump after he repeatedly suggested that Ukraine was to blame for the war.
“I think we were all more than a little bit stunned,” Murkowski said on a telephonic town hall with more than 1,000 Alaskans on Wednesday evening, describing what she called the “radical switch” in Trump’s stance toward Ukraine.
Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine’s leaders “should have never started it,” referring to a war against Russia that began on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia’s army crossed the border in an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Murkowski said Trump’s “very derisive” comments about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were “uncalled for and unfortunate.” In social media posts on Wednesday, Trump referred to Zelenskyy as a “dictator” and a “modestly successful comedian” who had talked the U.S. into sending Ukraine military aid for a war “that never had to start.”
“It is just wrong to suggest that somehow or another Ukraine started this war, asked for this war. It is clear for all the world to see and to know that Putin invaded Ukraine and started the war,” said Murkowski. “Ukraine has fought valiantly, they’ve defended their sovereignty. They clearly have earned their right to sit at the negotiating table.”
Murkowski and Sullivan have been staunch supporters of sending military aid to Ukraine, even as some of their Republican colleagues questioned the need for the aid.
In his written statement on Thursday, Sullivan said Trump’s “goal in the current negotiations is to end the war and ensure a sovereign, independent Ukraine with protected borders.”
“As they are going through this process, any agreement should be guided by the old Ronald Reagan adage with the Soviet Union, ‘trust but verify,’” Sullivan added.
Sullivan said he is “hopeful that these complicated negotiations will focus not only on ending the war in Ukraine, but also on the broader strategic interests of the United States, which include deterring and undermining authoritarian aggressors around the world.”
On Wednesday, Sullivan said in a social media post that Alaska is “on the frontlines of authoritarian aggression” after the North American Aerospace Defense Command detected a Russian military aircraft operating near Alaska on Tuesday.
Sullivan said Trump has “a record of substantial achievement that advanced America’s interests and those of our allies.”
“Words are important, but it’s actions backed by power and force that ultimately matter in the world of geopolitics,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also said that Trump “has a history of actions that are significantly harder on Putin — and the other dictators around the world,” when compared with President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama.
Murkowski called Trump “a tough negotiator.”
“Sometimes his negotiating tactics are perhaps a little bit unorthodox and maybe that’s some of what we’re seeing with his words now,” said Murkowski. “But I think we’re all kind of scratching our heads at how quickly the conversation has gone from being one that is supportive of President Zelenskyy to now being more supportive of Putin.”
Trump has praised Putin, including by calling Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “savvy.”
In a presentation to Alaska lawmakers in Juneau on Thursday, Alaska’s lone U.S. House member, Republican Rep. Nick Begich III, appeared to embrace Trump’s stance. Begich said he wanted to see “peace in Ukraine,” then repeated Trump’s false claim that the U.S. had sent $350 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
Congress has appropriated about $183 billion for Ukraine, according to a federal interagency oversight group, but not all the funding has been obligated or disbursed, and much of it has gone to domestic investment in U.S. military capabilities.
Begich also echoed Trump’s false statement about the human toll of the war, saying “there have been millions of individuals who have tragically died in that war.” No estimates put the death toll in the millions.
“I think there has to be a limit to how much the U.S. taxpayer is asked to provide for global defense,” Begich said. “So I encourage all efforts to support and find a way through this conflict to a peaceful resolution. Do I believe that that peaceful resolution will be amenable to everyone? No, it’s not going to be. But I think that the people of Ukraine deserve an opportunity for peace.”
Daily News reporter Sean Maguire contributed.
