LI Congress members call for strong, united response on Ukraine

WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday that Ukrainians will "fight fiercely" for their country and that the United States and its allies will make Russian President Vladimir Putin suffer for his illegal and unprovoked invasion.

Schumer and other members of Congress representing Long Island reacted to the invasion with outrage and demands for a strong united response, although Republican lawmakers criticized the Biden administration for "strategic failures" and a "too little, too late" response.

For Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has special resonance.

Schumer has said his family came to the United States as immigrants from Galicia, an area that’s now part of Ukraine. And he talked about how Nazis in 1941 machine-gunned down his great-grandmother and 16 of his family members remaining in Ukraine, and how in 1932 and 1933 millions of Ukrainians died from the Soviet Union’s Great Famine. "I join our Ukrainian community each year at St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate the Holodomor, where we commemorate how Stalin brutally murdered millions of Ukrainians and starved them to death," Schumer told reporters after an abortion rights rally in Foley Square.

"Ukraine is familiar with Russian attempts to strangle them, and like in the past, they will continue to fight that," Schumer said.

Other lawmakers sympathized with the besieged Ukrainians, but none called for U.S. troops to engage with the Soviets incursion. None mentioned former President Donald Trump’s calling Putin "smart" and "savvy" with his troop movements or Trump’s failure to condemn Putin.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted: "My thoughts are with the Ukrainian people as they face Putin’s unprovoked and clearly premeditated attack. He alone started this war and he must end it. Until then, the U.S. and our allies will impose severe & swift consequences for this needless loss of life."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand offered prayers for the people of Ukraine and said in a statement, "President Putin's unprovoked, unnecessary and unjustified war will inflict needless suffering on the people of Ukraine and has threatened the security of the entire world. The U.S. must lead the effort to hold Russia accountable."

Long Island’s two candidates for New York governor also weighed in.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) said in a statement, "Putin’s illegitimate and unprovoked attack in Ukraine demands a strong response from the world community. Putin cannot be appeased."

Saying that "we must summon the strength," he quoted Holocaust survivor and former congressman Tom Lantos: "The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians, and we cannot rest."

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) agreed that the United States and its NATO allies must press Russia with all diplomatic, informational and economic instruments of national power, but he also stressed that "we have to prioritize above all else our own energy security, economic interests and physical security."

Zeldin criticized the Biden administration for "strategic failures" and an "approach of appeasement of Russia," which has limited some of the United States’ options.

He cited Biden’s greenlighting of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 petroleum pipeline and his ‘minor incursion’ blunder, in which Biden said at a news conference that the United States would have to decide what to do if Putin made a minor incursion in Ukraine.

Biden and the White House quickly walked back that statement.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) also faulted Biden.

"The administration’s response on Russia so far can best be described as too little, too late," Garbarino said in a statement that called for placing "crippling economic sanctions and export controls" on Russia and committing "weapons and military equipment" to Ukraine.

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) said in a statement, "We must take immediate action to support our ally Ukraine and hold Putin accountable for starting an unnecessary war driven by his authoritarian agenda."