Roll Call
February 2, 2023

US must back Ukraine joining NATO in 2023, say European delegates
Eastern European delegation says ‘all stars are aligning’ for this year, before 2024 might bring another change in U.S. leadership

Concerned about the potential for a change in U.S. leadership after the next presidential election, a visiting delegation of Eastern European lawmakers this week called on the Biden administration and Congress to move this year to bring Ukraine into NATO.

Ahead of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius this summer, a faction of member states, led by the Baltic countries and Poland, is campaigning for the gathering to be used to begin the official process of admitting Ukraine to the Western military alliance.

“….We have huge strategic unity of Europeans, who recognized American leadership. So let’s do it like we did it in times of [Ronald] Reagan.”

…They also are arguing for the imposition of secondary sanctions on foreign countries like China and India that are buying up large quantities of heavily discounted Russian oil and gas exports.

And perhaps most politically sensitive of all? The Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish parliamentarians are pressing for Washington to discount the strong fears of the American public about engaging in a head-to-head armed conflict with Russia and move to admit Ukraine into NATO this year.

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January survey findings released from the Pew Research Center on Tuesday found a growing partisan gap in the way Americans view aid to Ukraine.

Some 40 percent of Republican voters now believe the United States is providing too much assistance to Ukraine, an increase from the 32 percent in September. Meanwhile, Democratic support for maintaining current aid levels to Ukraine fell five points to 40 percent, while those thinking support is too high increased from 11 percent to 15 percent since the fall. However, 23 percent of Democrats want to see even more support given to Ukraine, an increase from 20 percent holding that view in September.