CHARLESTON — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito Monday said a weekend fact-finding trip to Germany and Poland helped give her and fellow lawmakers a better perspective of the needs as both of those countries assist Ukraine as it resists invasion by Russia.

 

Capito, R-W.Va., and other U.S. senators held a press conference Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill to brief the press on their overseas trip. Capito was part of a bipartisan group of senators who left for Germany and Poland Thursday night, spending Friday in Germany and Saturday in Poland.

 

“When you move and you travel and you see this first-hand, you realize the urgency of now,” Capito said. “This is occurring in Europe’s … front yard. You understand the challenges of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian military, the Polish people. My goodness, I think all of us have such admiration for what the Poles are doing.”

 

The group met with officials with U.S. Africa Command, one of 11 Department of Defense’s unified combatant commands headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. They also met with the local U.S. ambassador and German foreign secretary.

 

In Poland, Capito and the group met with members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and with Polish military units. They also visited a Polish refugee center helping some of the nearly 3.5 million Ukrainians refugees displaced by the Russian invasion. Capito said she talked with some of the volunteers who have traveled to Poland from around the world to provide aid. She also talked to some of the refugees.

 

“We saw Katerina. She has two children,” Capito said. “She said, ‘I couldn’t let my children listen to these endless sirens anymore.’ She lived two miles from the Russian border. She left her home, her and her husband. She’s going to the United Kingdom, but she doesn’t want to go. She wants to live in freedom and her home and live on her property and have a normal life. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

 

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, surrounding the capitol of Kyiv and shelling military and civilian targets throughout the country. According to the United Nations, more than 900 civilians have died over the last nearly five weeks, a conservative estimate. But the Ukrainians have been able to slow the Russian advance and kill more than 7,000 Russian soldiers.

 

On their way back from Poland, the group stopped by a military training center in Germany where U.S. troops and NATO troops conduct drills.

 

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has already lost, but by any stretch of the imagination, he would have some success. Would he stop there? Would this be the end of where his empire building would go? Those nations in the front yard, in the NATO nations, they know the answer to that is no,” Capito said. “That strengthens the resolve. I think that has been a large part of why you’ve seen not just strengthening, but the speaking with one voice that you see with NATO, the United States, and other friendly nations. Putin is waging an immoral and unjust war.”

 

Congress recently approved a $1.5 trillion spending bill, which included $14 billion in aid for Ukraine. The aid package included millions of dollars for arms, such as Javelin anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft weapons, and drones.

 

The fact-finding group included Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Susan Collins, R-Maine, John Cornyn, R-Texas, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Angus King, I-Maine, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.