Oklahoma Delegation Pushes For More Aid To Ukraine

Members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation continue to call on the administration to increase the amount of aid -- lethal and humanitarian -- being sent to Ukraine and are even introducing their own legislation to add weight to that effort.

This week President Biden committed another $800 million in security assistance to the war-ravaged nation -- aid that includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 drones, over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, 25,000 sets of body armor, 100 grenade launchers and more. The president, however, continues to decline Ukraine's request for fighter jets to help secure its airspace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a moving address to Congress this week, in which he thanked Americans for their support, but also asked the nation to do more -- specifically, to help facilitate the transfer of Polish-owned MiG-29 fighter jets.

"I have a need," Zelenskyy said through a translator, "a need to protect our skies. I need your decision, your help."

At a news conference following the speech, GOP senators, including Oklahoma's junior senator, showed their support for Zelenskyy's request.

"There’s a Biblical term that says if it’s within your power to act and you withhold it—that’s really what he was calling out," said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). "It’s to say, ‘You have access to aircraft that we could use. That's what we need to defend ourselves'...That’s not an unreasonable request from a person who has taken inbound 1,000 missiles in the last three weeks."

The Biden administration says such a move would be interpreted by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an escalation of the U.S. and NATO's involvement in the conflict and thus risk triggering a broader conflict, in which American servicemembers could be in harm's way.

Congressman Tom Cole also supports transferring the fighter jets to Ukraine and this week introduced a house resolution that "calls upon the President of the United States to support, pursue, and facilitate such transfers..."

Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) joined a dozen of her GOP House colleagues this week in introducing the Make Russia Pay Act. The idea, she said, is to take the Russian assets being seized or frozen through U.S. sanctions and use them to help pay for humanitarian support and the rebuilding of infrastructure in Ukraine.

"The funds are just sitting," said Rep. Bice. "They were seized, but there’s nothing happening with them right now and so we feel like this is a great opportunity for us to put those dollars to use."

Bice and Cole both voted for the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill last week that included $14 billion in aid for Ukraine.

Sen. Lankford and many other Republicans voted against it, inviting criticism from Democrats who say it's hypocritical to dismiss President Biden's efforts to help Ukraine and then not be willing to vote for Congress's biggest aid package.

Lankford said he supports aid for Ukraine, but that it was a political ploy by Democrats to include the aid package in a bloated spending bill they knew he and others couldn't support.