Washington Insider: Republicans’ plan for Ukraine

Ukraine's Kyiv Post says some senior congressional Republicans have put forward a plan to back Ukraine - but no one has heard about it. What is the "Proposed Plan for Victory in Ukraine." Caliber.Az reprints the article.

US House of Representatives Speaker, Mike Johnson, has cited the White House’s lack of a “clear strategy” on how Ukraine can win, as being a key reason why further aid for the war-torn nation could not be shepherded through Congress.

However, less talked about is that there is a Republican plan for Ukrainian victory, released in November, which to this day, is still the only articulated set of measures to correct the weaknesses in the original legislation, and to achieve victory, however, House Republicans have seemingly not acted on it.

The “Proposed Plan for Victory in Ukraine” was drafted by the Republican Chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (Michael McCaul), the House Armed Services Committee (Mike Rogers), and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Mike Turner), three men with numerous combined years in foreign policy and intelligence matters. It outlines three very reasonable steps to defeating Russia: “(1) providing critical weapons to Ukraine at the speed of relevance, (2) tightening sanctions on the Putin regime, and (3) transferring frozen Russian sovereign assets to Ukraine.”

Noting that Republicans are demanding the prioritization of “transparency and accountability,” the document points out the 30 audits of Ukraine aid that have been already completed and that the “Inspectors General of DoD, State, and USAID have not identified any significant diversion, theft, or misuse of U.S. assistance to Ukraine.” Continuing that “there are 96 ongoing or planned audits and reports by the IGs of more than 20 different agencies, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to monitor, audit, and evaluate activities related to the Ukraine response.”

The report takes a hardline in criticizing the Biden White House’s slow response in sending assistance to Ukraine, stating that Ukraine needs the “longest-range variant of ATACMS, F-16s, and sufficient quantities of cluster munitions, artillery, air defenses, and armor to make a difference on the battlefield. This delay is costing Ukrainian lives and the American taxpayer” and harshly criticizes the Biden White House for not having taken action to send Ukraine the weapons that it has been requesting for over a year-and-a-half.

Repeating a talking point often given by hawkish Republicans, the report notes that “Russia invaded Ukraine a mere six months after Biden’s shameful surrender to the Taliban and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan,” saying this was because “Putin sensed American weakness and believed he could seize Ukraine without a significant response from the West.”

Despite the document’s call to immediate action, there are few signs that the top House Republican, Speaker Johnson, is ready to implement the recommendations. Earlier last week, Speaker Johnson led a group of about 60 House Republicans to tour the US border with Mexico where he promised that aid for Ukraine would not pass until America’s southern border was “closed and secured.” 

What that exactly means on a given day is subject to debate, despite warnings that Trump-era boondoggles, such as the yet unfinished border wall, would be a non-starter for the Democratic-controlled Senate. 

Democratic House Member, Chris Murphy, lamented in Voice of America that, “"The consequence of Republicans' decision to tie Ukraine funding to [the] border is that the Ukrainians are already at a moment of real crisis.”

As to whether there had been any movement by House Republicans to put together a plan based on the concept paper, Kyiv Post communicated with the press office and his committee of one of the plan’s authors, who suggested that Kyiv Post reach out to the House Appropriations Chair, Kay Granger, as the matter rested in that committee.

Despite multiple attempts, Granger's press office could not be reached for comment.