(PatriotWise.com) — South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday that he was pushing to seize Russian assets to provide additional support for Ukraine.
In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” last Sunday, Graham told host Margaret Brennan that the US and NATO should seize the roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian assets “sitting in Europe” and give the money to Ukraine. Similarly, Graham noted that the US has Russian sovereign wealth assets that could also be seized.
Graham also called for the US to name Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
He told Margaret Brennan that President Volodomyr Zelenskyy “lit up like a Christmas tree” when he suggested making Russia a state sponsor of terror, explaining that it would be a significant blow to Russia.
Graham said that now that Congress has approved the supplemental foreign aid package, the US has the opportunity “to reset this war.”
President Biden announced last Friday another $225 million military aid package while visiting France on a state visit.
There has been some disagreement between Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on the war. The White House released a joint roadmap ahead of the upcoming G7 summit that supported the efforts by some G7 leaders to use the profits from Russian assets to assist Ukraine.
However, Senator Graham conceded that the White House was unlikely to support his call to make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Graham, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, told Margaret Brennan that the US would either help Ukraine or it wouldn’t. He suggested that now would be the time to get the US-supplied F-16s flying and allow Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range artillery to strike targets within Russia.
Pushing for the US to “go on the offensive,” Graham said the US and its Western allies should be targeting “Putin’s assets” throughout the world. He argued that doing so would help bring an end to the war.
Graham also criticized how “indecisive” and “slow” the US has been in supporting Ukraine and said he hoped that Ukraine would regain momentum during the summer.
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