A Republican leader has denounced Russia's six-week long unprovoked assault on Ukraine, labeling it a "genocidal campaign."
Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming on Sunday declared that Russia is committing "genocide" in Ukraine. During a conversation with anchor Jake Tapper of CNN's "State of the Union," the Republican representative criticized National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's advice of "improving [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy's position at the negotiating table" and instead provide "advanced weaponry...tanks...artillery...[and] armored vehicles."
"I think this clearly is genocide," Cheney declared on national television, as per Breitbart. "I think that Europe needs to understand and grapple with the fact that you've got a genocidal campaign, the first kind of horrific kind of genocidal campaign that we have seen certainly in recent decades."
But Rep. Cheney did not stop there, as she also pointed a finger at "Europeans" who "need to understand that they're funding that genocidal campaign." She reasoned that their failure to "impose a kind of oil and gas embargo that the U.S. has imposed against Russian oil and gas" is funding Russia's assault on Ukraine. Cheney acknowledged the "economic consequences" of a Russian oil ban but she urged, "they need to do it."
"They need to understand, every single time, every single day they're continuing to import Russian oil and gas, they're funding Putin's genocide in Ukraine," Cheney said of Europe's dependency on Russian oil products.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has pledged to do more to support the Ukrainian defense against Russia. According to Al Jazeera, Sullivan has said that the U.S. is committed to providing Ukraine with "the weapons it needs" to fight Russian forces that continue their assault on civilians.
Sullivan confirmed that the Biden administration will send more weapons to Ukraine to help defend itself and prevent Russia from gaining more ground and killing more civilians, which the U.S. government has labeled as war crimes.
During an appearance on ABC News' "This Week," Sullivan said, "We're going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns where they commit these crimes."
On Thursday, the European Union approved the fifth round of sanctions against Russia. ABC News reported that the "substantial" package implements sanctions on "oligarchs, Russian propaganda actors, members of the security and military apparatus and entities in the industrial and technological sector linked to the Russian aggression against Ukraine," the French Presidency of the Council of the EU reported.
The latest round of sanctions include a ban on Russian coal imports, an embargo on arms to Russia and the freezing of assets of several Russian banks. The U.S. meanwhile has placed sanctions against Russia's largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining companies on Thursday night. It also blocks the Russians' access to the U.S. financial system to apply more economic pressure on President Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
On Monday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is set to meet Putin in Moscow, as announced by the Federal Chancellery in Vienna.
