After Ukraine visit, Collins expresses solidarity, support for U.S. military aid

May 17—Sen. Susan Collins returned late Monday from a four-day visit to Europe that included a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and a meeting with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Collins made the unannounced trip in a delegation led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and two of her Republican colleagues, John Cornyn of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming, before going on to visit the capitals of Sweden and Finland, two steadfastly neutral nations that have recently announced their intentions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in response to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

"The people of Ukraine are inspiring the world by their courage and will to fight for their country in response to Putin's unprovoked and brutal invasion," Collins, whose office has not responded to interview requests, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "We expressed our solidarity with the Ukrainian people and assured him of the bipartisan commitment in Congress to give the Ukrainians the military and humanitarian assistance they need to protect their people and defend their country from Russia's war of aggression."

In Kyiv, I met with Ukrainian President Zelensky, who has united his country with his extraordinary leadership. I assured him of Congress' bipartisan commitment to give Ukraine the military and humanitarian aid they urgently need to protect their people and defend their country. pic.twitter.com/04wQ7Dlp6Y

— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) May 17, 2022

The Republican senators' visit comes amid internal dissent within their party over the imminent passage of a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, including $6 billion in equipment, training and intelligence resources for their forces, which have pushed Russia back from Kyiv and have blocked its advances in the eastern part of the country. Eleven Republican senators voted against advancing the package Monday, including McConnell's Kentucky colleague Rand Paul and Josh Hawley of Missouri. They and a number of Trump-aligned senate candidates, including J.D. Vance of Ohio, argue the resources should be spent on Americans instead.

McConnell pushed back strongly on this line of argument during his trip with Collins to Ukraine. "It's in our interests to help Ukrainians just like it's in the interest of NATO countries. So this is not some handout," McConnell told reporters on Sunday. "This is to prevent this ruthless thug [Vladimir Putin] from beginning a march through Europe. And the first place to stop him is in Ukraine."

In her statement Tuesday, Collins did not directly address the dissent in her party, but made it clear where she stood on the aid bill. "My visit reaffirmed my belief that Congress must urgently pass this legislation to support the Ukrainian people," she said.

Trump was famously friendly with Putin, one of the few world figures he never criticized while in office. One of Trump's two impeachments was for threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine, which it needed to deter Russia, unless Zelensky ordered investigators in his country to try to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden's son, Hunter.

In her statement, Collins noted her delegation had met with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and expressed tacit support for those countries' NATO membership bids.

"The irony of this situation is that Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine has produced exactly the opposite results of what he intended," she said. "It has strengthened European unity against Russia, as is evidenced by Sweden's and Finland's decisions to apply for membership in NATO."

In March, Collins met refugees and aid workers in a Polish town on the border with Ukraine as part of a bipartisan Senate delegation. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine's 1st Congressional District, made visits there and to Moldova, a former Soviet Republic many fear would be next in line for invasion were Russian forces able to take the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa.