Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told Newsmax on Wednesday that the U.S. ''lost 10 weeks of effort'' and should have begun arming the Ukrainians much sooner.
On ''The Chris Salcedo Show,'' Stewart said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine should not have come as a surprise.
President Joe Biden ''said absolutely, beginning in probably December, we know Vladimir Putin is going to invade Ukraine,'' the Utah congressman said. ''We had exclusive intelligence on this.''
''If he believed that, and he did, then many of us were saying to him begin to reinforce them now, begin to get them the military equipment they need to defend themselves,'' he continued. ''Do that now.''
Stewart said that a lot of the Western aid convoys amass on the Polish border and are easy targets for attack.
''We lost probably 10 weeks of effort, and it's so much more difficult now, as you can imagine,'' he said. ''It's much, much harder to make that beneficial to the Ukrainian people now than it would have been before the invasion.''
The Hill reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, circulated a draft of a nonbinding resolution shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech to Congress to urge the Biden administration to support transferring the Polish MiG-29s to Ukraine.
Military experts say that the MiG-29s are outdated, and that giving them to Ukraine would not only provide ineffective air cover but would also force Ukrainian pilots into suicide missions.
''As a former Air Force pilot … I think it's only marginally beneficial,'' Stewart said. ''The most important thing we can give them is the Javelin anti-armor systems — anti-tank and anti-armor — they've been incredibly effective.''
''I just don't want to present the MiG-29s as some kind of silver bullet,'' he added. ''It doesn't answer their question entirely. It helps them a little, but it doesn't end the war.''
Stewart, who is seeking reelection to a sixth term this year, faces challenger Erin Rider in Utah's District 2 GOP primary set for June 28, according to Ballotpedia. The general election is Nov. 8.
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