Months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has not been as successful for Russia as many had expected, which according to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, was due, in part, to the United States and NATO’s training of the Ukrainian army.
During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5, Rogers offered an update on the situation, which he said was positive. However, he emphasized the importance of a good showing from the Ukrainians against Russia, which he said would deter further aggression from Russia and a possible invasion of Taiwan by China.
“It’s a pretty positive turn of events,” he said. “And I want to make sure your listeners understand that they should take ownership of how well Ukraine is doing because the United States military, along with our NATO allies, has been in Ukraine since 2014 training their military. I went over there in 2014, right after they took Ukraine. We had just set up our training camps. The Ukrainian army that I saw at that time was a shadow of what it is now. They were not a professional army in any way that we would see, but we spent eight years over there training them up and, more importantly, their leadership up into a fine professional military. And that’s one of the main reasons they’ve been so effective at pushing back the Russian army.”
“I’m thrilled that we finally got Biden to send them lethal aid, although I would make the point that I was, along with my counterpart on the Senate side, pushing the administration last October to give that lethal aid before the invasion and we might could have deterred them,” Rogers continued. “But that was Biden’s call. He didn’t want to do it. He felt like that was going to be provocative and escalatory. In any event, he’s finally given them the aid that they need. Ukraine has retaken ground now. They have stopped the advance in the Donbas, Kharkiv. They have taken it back from the Russians. I fully expect Ukraine to prevail in this conflict, and I don’t see Ukraine willing to cede any territory as a part of any cease-fire to Russia. So this is going to be a traumatic loss for Russia in the end. I think it already is.”
“But also, I think it is important for us to be mindful that we need Ukraine to win this because of the message it sends to China about their aspirations to take Taiwan, which would be a real problem for us, and we need Ukraine to win because we don’t want Russia to be successful there and then think they can take one of the NATO countries, which would then trigger our involvement and we do not want boots on the ground over there,” he added. “We want Ukraine to win and to send a signal to Russia that that kind of naked aggression will never be successful.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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