Detroit News: After visit to Ukraine, Walberg says it can win war if West provides more resources
Washington — Michigan U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg this past week became one of the first American elected officials to set foot in Ukraine since its invasion by Russia two months ago.
Walberg, a Tipton Republican, said he spent about three days in the war-torn nation over the Orthodox Easter weekend, traveling to Lviv, then to the capital Kyiv and surrounding areas, as well as the Black Sea port city of Odessa.
"It strengthened my resolve to be very clear that Ukraine can and will win the war if we provide the necessary resources, because they’ve shown they can use them," Walberg said in an interview.
"The longer we delay in getting the resources to them, the longer the war goes on. Ukraine is never going to accept Russian dominance."
Walberg, who traveled with Ukrainian-born U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Indiana, met with political leaders including the chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the archbishop of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius, he said. Spartz was in Ukraine the previous week with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana.
"They're greatly appreciative of the United States and the Western nations for all the support they received," Walberg said. "I've made some statements that I was disappointed we didn't get in sooner with the sanctions, even before the war broke out, and had been slow in getting them equipment. But now we beefed it up."
President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, including for military and security assistance.
Ukrainian officials are also eager for the U.S. to reestablish a diplomatic presence in Ukraine and asked for the return of a military attaché, Walberg said.
Spartz stressed the importance of high-level U.S. officials making the trip to to Ukraine to show support and called on Biden to make the trip. Her and Walberg's trip overlapped with a visit to Kyiv last Sunday by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"It's important for us to be on the ground and shows that our country stands with the people of Ukraine," Spartz said on CNN.
Spartz was able to visit with one of her grandmothers during the trip, Walberg said, whom he met, along with some of her cousins.
Walberg also said they heard sirens go off and a couple times had to retreat to bomb shelters to wait out a threat.
In the Odessa area, he and Spartz saw the residential building where multiple people were killed by a Russian shell April 23, including a young mother and her 3-month-old baby girl.
"Her husband had just left to get groceries, and missile strike hit and he returned to see hole in the wall," Walberg said. "That’s not something you can prepare for. All of a sudden it hits and .… it’s against every every rule of warfare."
In a more hopeful moment, Walberg, a former pastor, said he preached at two Ukrainian churches on Orthodox Easter Sunday.
"We saw over three four miles of traffic coming back into Ukraine as we were crossing the border. These were Ukrainians coming back for Easter with their families who were still there," Walberg said.
Walberg set up the trip through his friend Pavel Unguryan, a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament, he said. The congressman stressed the trip was not an official one, but personal, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not greenlighted delegations to travel to Ukraine. He said he paid for the entire trip himself.
This article originally appeared in the May 1 edition of the Detroit News.