Dozens of US officials and members of Congress attended the Munich Security Conference, which was held at the glamorous Bayerischer Hof Hotel. Vice President Harris spoke at the meeting Friday afternoon. Zelenskiy spoke Saturday morning before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Mr. Vance arrived Saturday morning, as did several other members of Congress who arrived later. Given how Vance will address the conference during Sunday morning’s panel discussion on U.S.-European relations, one might think that Vance would be interested in seeing what European and Ukrainian leaders have to say. There may be.
However, several senators who attended told me that although Vance was on the premises, Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and He reportedly chose not to attend a bipartisan Senate delegation meeting with Prime Minister Kaja Kalas and others. “I didn’t expect to learn anything new,” Vance said afterward.
Perhaps Vance didn’t want to learn new facts that might contradict the talking points about Europe and Ukraine that unfolded in predictable fashion on Sunday. The senator and his MAGA allies are trying to block additional U.S. aid to Ukraine by hiding behind arguments based largely on distorted facts. To believe these arguments, you have to ignore what our European allies and Ukrainians say, just as Vance abandoned these meetings.
For example, during Sunday’s panel discussion, Vance said the United States should help Ukraine because the U.S. defense industry does not produce enough munitions and the U.S. military must conserve resources for other regions. He argued that he could not continue. “You can’t win wars with GDP, euros and dollars. Wars can be won with weapons, but Western countries don’t manufacture enough weapons,” he said.
In fact, the funding legislation that Vance opposes includes billions of dollars to increase U.S. weapons production capacity and replenish U.S. weapons inventories. Vance obstructs resolution of the very issue he is complaining about, and then points to it again to justify his real objective of abandoning Ukraine.
“If we divert this money, we will increase capacity, heat up supply lines, and prove J.D. Vance wrong,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-N.C., who attended the Munich conference. Hawaii) told me.
Vance argued that the United States should try to strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin because Ukraine lacks a winning strategy. “Russia has an incentive to come to the table now,” Vance said. Vance said that even if the aid package were to be implemented, it would not “fundamentally change the reality on the battlefield.”
Already changing battlefield realities in Russia’s favor is politicians like Vance blocking U.S. aid. While the conference was in progress, the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka fell into the hands of Russian forces. But if Mr. Vance had shown up to the meeting with Mr. Zelenskiy, he would have heard the Ukrainian leader’s strategy firsthand.
“President Zelenskiy pushed back pretty strongly against the argument that this is a never-ending war,” Schatz told me. “He laid out his winning theory. It’s convincing. He just doesn’t have enough ammunition.”
President Zelenskiy told the Senate delegation how parliamentary delays are hurting not only the fighting ability but also the morale of the Ukrainian military. “Ukrainians are sitting in muddy trenches, saying to each other between shots, ‘Have you heard anything about the U.S. Congress?’ Is the money coming? What’s going on here? Are you there?” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) told me.
The right-wing neo-isolationist crowd laments that the U.S. government is no longer functional enough to accomplish big things, such as aiding Ukraine. Meanwhile, they are doing everything possible to cause further dysfunction, the White House told me.
“We are not the America we once were because of the actions of people who hold that view,” he said. “This is a self-proving phenomenon, and if they stop it, we’ll be the America we used to be again.”
Although Vance claims to be delivering some tough love to Europeans, his audience is likely to be in the United States, where he apparently auditioned for former President Donald Trump’s 2024 vice presidential candidacy. ing. Vance went all the way to Munich to troll Europeans and insult Ukrainians to cheer up his MAGA buddies. what they did. He also seeks to shift responsibility from Trumpist Republicans for the deaths of Ukrainians caused by their obstructionism.
At least the lawmakers who attended the meeting heard the truth from America’s allies that Europe is making a lot of sacrifices to help Ukraine. And abandoning Ukraine now will only lead to more deaths. Ukrainians are not going to stop fighting, whether we help them or not. Because they are fighting to survive.
Despite his best efforts, Vance was unable to avoid a confrontation with a Ukrainian lawmaker in Munich. Vance asserted during the panel that he prefers President Biden over President Trump in the November election, as President Putin has recently said. During the audience questions section, Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleksiy Goncharenko spoke. Pushed back against Vance’s naivety. “Don’t forget that Putin always lies,” he simply reminded her to his face.