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FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pledging support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the country’s fight against Russia, beginning with an immediate ban on Russian oil and gas.
Zelenskyy on Saturday spoke to U.S. senators and House members virtually as Congress weighs additional aid requests to help the country fight off a brutal Russian invasion.
During a call with Fox News Digital immediately following the senate’s zoom with the Ukrainian leader, the senator spoke of Zelenskyy’s “tremendous courage.”
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“I thought it was very informative call. Obviously, he is showing tremendous courage both personally and then on behalf of the Ukrainian people. I mean, the people of Ukraine are such incredible fighters, and I think you could just see this certainly brave stand that they’re making,” Hawley said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen in a Zoom call with U.S. senators on Saturday, March 5, 2022. ( Sen. Marco Rubio)
Zelenskyy requested more lethal aid from the United States, including fighter planes, and a no-fly zone, which NATO rejected yesterday, Hawley said.
The most interesting thing Zelenskyy said, according to Hawley, was immediately enacting tougher sanctions, starting with a ban on Russian oil imports. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., asked him about a possible oil ban.
Zelenskyy “emphasized that getting tougher on the sanctions was very important,” Hawley said. “And he said repeatedly that an embargo on Russia and particularly their oil and natural gas, was absolutely critical.”
“I couldn’t agree more on the need to sanction oil and natural gas on the need to stop the United States importing it,” Hawley added. “And I cannot believe that the Biden administration continues to keep our energy production turned off and allow the Russians to move forward.”
The Missouri senator also told Fox News Digital that Zelenskyy expressed that he had wished sanctions by the U.S. on Russia had come earlier, which may have prevented a war from beginning in the first place.
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Hawley said the leader “had hoped and wished that sanctions would have come earlier. And of course, he’s exactly right if we had sanctioned Nord Stream 2 in particular…let’s remember, Joe Biden came to office and lifted the sanctions on Nord Stream 2.”
The senator pointed out that all Democrats voted against enacting sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in December, which he said has been “a very, very costly mistake on their part and is certainly something that they’re going to have to answer for.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Hawley demanded the Biden administration stop imports of Russian “blood oil” immediately.
Hawley said he will “continue to try and open up U.S. energy production and continue to try to get stops, American imports of Russian oil and natural gas. And I amazed at every passing day that this administration will not sanction their energy sector and will not open arms up. I just think it’s indefensible, indefensible that we were importing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from Russia. This is blood oil and this is financing the war.”
“And yet Joe Biden won’t do anything about it, and he will not turn on our energy production. And it is absolutely indefensible that is costing the people of Ukraine. It is costing them lives. At this point, it is costing the American people, our security and both in terms of our national security as well as economic security. And it is the president has got to reverse course on this. His position is totally indefensible.”
The senator concluded by saying Zelenskyy was very “resolute” and is committed to carrying on the fight against Russia.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 28: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asks a question during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit, testified on the first panel. (Photo By Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)
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“I would say very resolute in a very animated as certainly someone who is who seems to be absolutely committed to carrying on this fight. He emphasized that Ukraine is literally fighting for his life as a nation. They are fighting to not be extinguished as a nation.”
“I mean, Russia thinks that they could just destroy Ukraine, and they won’t be any worse for it. And we’ve got to make sure that that doesn’t happen, that Russia finds that this is going to be an unending insurgency, that the Ukrainian people are not going to give up, that we’re going to harm them and that we are going to punish Russia severely beginning with their energy sector.”
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