Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Thursday the Biden Administration made a “big misstep” in failing to send MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
“I do not understand the Biden Administration’s policy on this,” she said of the reversal of a plan to provide the jets from Poland for Ukrainian pilots who are already trained to fly them.
Talk of sending the MIGs to Ukraine surfaced recently when the U.S. said it would “backfill” Poland’s MIGs if the jets would be given to Ukraine.
Last weekend, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was on board with the idea.
When Poland announced it was ready to fly the jets to an American air base in Germany for the U.S. to deliver to Ukraine, though, the U.S. started reversing course.
They first said they were not aware Poland planned to fly the jets to Germany, expecting Poland to deliver them directly to Ukraine.
Then Pentagon officials said delivering the jets to Ukraine was out all together because it was not “tenable.”
“What does it matter if they come from an American air base or wherever they would come?” Capito said during a virtual press conference from her Washington office. “I think this is a big misstep by the administration.”
On Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he thought the jets would be sent and fully supported it.
Putin has said such support will not be tolerated, but Manchin said that is where the line is drawn.
“We are going to backfill those planes,” he said. “You can’t be backed down by a thug. I can’t stand back. I am not taking anything off the table.”
“We are pushing the administration on this,” Capito said Thursday. “It seems they are backing down … more on this.”
Capito and Manchin both were on a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky last weekend and Zelensky specifically asked for the jets.
“We thought (at that time) we were well on our way to delivering them,” Capito said, adding that the U.S. is already delivering javelin and stinger missiles, the former to take out tanks and the latter to shoot down aircraft, and the MIGs are “very effective in this type of war.”
“I believe we should deliver those MIGs to the Ukrainian Air Force and let them take the aggressive actions they would use them for or the protection devices they would use them for as well,” she said. “I believe (Russian Pres. Vladimir) Putin knows we are very much in support of maintaining a democracy in an independent country, Ukraine…”
But according to various news sources, the administration thinks the move could further escalate the crisis, possibly leading to a direct confrontation with Russia.
Capito and Manchin both said the U.S. should not back down and there would be no reason to use American soldiers, just supplying more equipment requested by Ukraine.
“If NATO decided to get into a more aggressive position in terms of engaging the military we could unleash the fury of the superpowers,” Capito said, and that is something everyone wants to avoid.
“At this point, I don’t see that happening,” she said of using direct military engagement.
Capito said Putin’s “back is against the wall” and he thought he could take Ukraine in three days.
“I think he totally underestimated the Ukrainian people,” she said, and of the friends Ukraine has.
The best thing that could happen now is to find some way to get him to stand down, although he has already lost face.
But, so far, she said, diplomatic efforts have failed.
Capito also blasted the Biden Administration’s energy policy.
“The President has displayed an international weakness,” she said of America’s failure to be self-reliant in energy, and he is blaming higher gas prices on Putin when the prices had already soared.
“I think they are disconnected from reality and they try to find something to blame it on,” she said of Biden’s response to those rising gas prices.
The White House refuses to take the action needed to boost domestic production or even make permitting an easier process, using as an example the Mountain Valley Pipeline that could already be taking natural gas out of West Virginia to booster supplies here and in Europe.
Mountain Valley Pipeline is 95 percent complete but continues to be held up in court cases involving federal permitting.
Capito also scoffed at Biden’s suggestion about beating high gas prices by driving an electric vehicle (EV).
“That is not a solution now,” she said, adding that EVs are expensive and in short supply anyway.
Capito said she supports the use of EVs, but as a long-term plan, not a solution for what is happening now.
During a Senate floor speech Thursday, she said the Biden energy policy has helped leave the country too dependent on oil from other counties.
“We’re seeing the importance of energy independence play out in real time with the destruction—horrifying destruction—in Ukraine,” she said. “Because of the Biden administration policies that I’ve just outlined, we are not able to immediately provide an energy backstop to our European allies trying to break their Russian oil and gas habit. They’re begging for our coal as we speak. It’s the perfect storm for a global energy crisis.”
That has left Biden trying to bargain with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to backfill the energy gap as well as opening the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, she said, even though it “didn’t work last time, costs the taxpayer, and depletes our own stockpile—which we created from the last oil crisis to be used when the United States faces another crisis ... but incentivizing oil and gas production here in our own country or letting it move forward? Nope. So according to the administration and their actions, Saudi and Venezuela oil and OPEC oil is good, but American oil is bad.”
Capito said this scenario also displays a lack of effective leadership.
“Right now, the world is begging for American leadership,” she said. “Ukraine is begging for American leadership. Europe is begging for American leadership. and that includes energy leadership. Putin is emboldened every day that the Biden administration flails on this issue…We cannot leave Ukrainian patriots in our European allies at the mercy of Moscow. We must address the poor energy policy decisions of the Biden administration in order to unleash full American energy production, support our allies in Europe, and stop funding Putin’s war against the Ukrainians. We should be acting quickly. The security of the free world depends on this.”