WASHINGTON, D.C. — While Ohio’s U.S. senators are members of opposing parties, they agree that the federal government needs to be prepared to punish Russia if it once again invades Ukraine.
On Tuesday, one day before President Joe Biden formally announced he’d send several thousand U.S. troops to Eastern Europe, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) delivered a speech on the Senate floor about Ukraine.
“People listening may be wondering, why should the United States get engaged here and why is this senator from Ohio passionate about this?” Portman said. “Well, first, in Ohio, we have a lot of Ukrainians I’ve gotten to know over the years, and it’s not just about the Ukrainian Americans in Ohio. It’s about people from all over that part of the world.”
“I believe what happens in Ukraine does affect the cause of freedom more broadly,” Portman added. “Countries all over the world are watching, authoritarian countries are watching, democratically elected countries are watching. And they’re wondering, in the 21st century, are we going to allow something like this to occur?”
Portman recently traveled to Ukraine with a bipartisan group of senators to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The group briefed Biden once they returned to the U.S.
Portman, who co-chairs the Senate Ukraine Caucus, said he wants Congress to approve an “extensive” sanctions package to go after Russia if its troops invade.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in an interview last week that he agrees sanctions, to go after Russia’s economy and President Vladimir Putin’s personal wealth, would be the right approach instead of having U.S. troops on the ground fighting the Russians.
“Our country, our intelligence people know a lot about that and they know how to squeeze them so that, all of a sudden, their huge pipelines of profits are going to be stopped up,” Brown said last week. “And that’s what we do with these sanctions. I’m the chair of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. One of our jobs is to work to levy these sanctions. We don’t want to do it, but we will let Russia know we will do it. And we will in fact do it if they do any incursion at all into Ukraine.”
Ohio’s largest Ukrainian population is in the city of Parma, right outside of Cleveland.
Both senators said they’ve been hearing from concerned Ohioans as tensions continue to rise.
