Since the Russo-Ukraine War began, the United States has provided well over $115 billion in aid to the beleaguered Eastern European country. Much of that took the aid of military equipment, such as Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
However, it isn’t just military equipment that we have sent. The aid sent also includes a large amount of humanitarian and financial assistance. Still it is not enough for President Zelensky of Ukraine, who is demanding ever more money from the United States.
His latest demand is that the United States pay for Ukrainian elections. That came during a meeting with Senator Lindsey Graham. Speaking about the meeting, Zelensky said, “I told him: if the United States and Europe give us financial support… I’m sorry, I will not hold elections on credit, I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections either. But if you give me this financial support, if the parliamentarians realize that we need to do this, then let’s quickly change the legislation and, most importantly, let’s take risks together.”
Well, 2024 GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who is likely aiming to be Trump’s VP pick by courting MAGA voters, promoting MAGA policies, and not insulting the former president, unleashed on Zelensky for that demand for yet more aid in a press release.
Commenting on how he views Zelensky’s aid request and characterizing it as extortion, he said, “Zelenskyy’s veiled threat to forgo democratic elections in Ukraine unless the American people foot the bill and cough up another $135 million in funding represents a new level of extortion of the United States.”
Continuing, Vivek characterized what Zelensky is doing as “wrong,” saying, “Our nation is being duped by a leader in Ukraine willing to sacrifice his own nation’s credibility as a ‘democracy’ in a gambit to secure even more money from U.S. taxpayers. This is wrong.”
He then attacked Zelensky’s handling of internal political matters in the wake of the Russian invasion, saying, “In a span of just two years, Zelenskyy has made moves that bear a striking resemblance to the tactics employed by Vladimir Putin: Zelenskyy’s actions include the banning of 11 opposition parties and the consolidation of all state media into a single entity. These actions not only mirror Putin’s refusal to register opposition parties but also extensive government control over the media landscape.”
Continuing, he noted that the US violated its pledge to not expand NATO eastward when the Soviet Union fell, saying, “We have more than fulfilled U.S. commitments to Ukraine in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, even as we have badly violated James Baker’s February 1990 ‘Not One Inch’ commitment to the Soviet Union’s then-President Mikhail Gorbachev about limiting NATO expansion.”
Vivek also argued that the aid already sent Ukraine’s way should be more than enough, saying, “With over $135 billion in funding already provided, Ukraine should easily be able to allocate 0.1 percent of that to pay for their election. Of course, the mainstream media and the establishment will say that any money the U.S. sends to support Ukraine is strictly ‘itemized and audited’ so that it can’t be used that way. This is a joke funnier than any Zelenskyy could have written in his prior career as a comedian. Don’t forget that in June, the Pentagon itself discovered an ‘accounting error’ that artificially created an extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine without Congressional approval. The notion that all money and military equipment being sent to Ukraine is being carefully tracked is deeply dishonest. Americans deserve the TRUTH.“
"*" indicates required fields