Republican supporters of Ukraine are utilizing the Kremlin’s deadly missile strikes as their newest proof to persuade Donald Trump that he should improve strain on Vladimir Putin if he needs to succeed in a ceasefire deal.
Professional-Ukraine lawmakers and aides within the Republican occasion have fastidiously navigated Trump’s obvious affinity for Putin and averted direct intervention of their efforts to shift his assist towards Kyiv. However following the Russian strikes throughout Palm Sunday celebrations within the metropolis of Sumy, advisers and allies have been extremely vocal in condemning the assault utilizing language meant to resonate with the US president’s conservative, non secular base.
“Putin and peace apparently don’t slot in the identical sentence,” wrote Lindsey Graham, the Trump-allied senator who has sought to stability his assist for Ukraine together with his need to stay on Trump’s good aspect. “Russia’s barbaric Palm Sunday assault on Christian worshippers in Ukraine appears to be Putin’s reply to efforts to realize a ceasefire and peace,” he wrote.
“Whereas Ukraine has accepted President Trump’s ceasefire proposal, Putin continues to indicate he’s extra focused on bloodshed than in peace,” stated Michael McCaul, a consultant for Texas. “Focusing on harmless civilians as they collect to worship on Palm Sunday is past the pale.”
The strike got here lower than 48 hours after Steve Witkoff, the Trump envoy, met with Putin in St Petersburg. The Kremlin known as the assembly “extraordinarily helpful and really efficient”, though there was no indication that the 2 males achieved concrete outcomes. Witkoff’s gesture of holding has hand over his coronary heart when he noticed Putin has been criticised in Washington as excessively fawning and naive.
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