GOP lawmaker urges White House to provide longer-range munitions to Ukraine

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) urged the Biden administration to provide longer-range munitions to her native country of Ukraine as the sovereign country’s war with Russia slowly approaches a full year of battle. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Spartz said that the Biden administration must be “proactive” to address and provide the proper security assistance to Ukrainian armed forces, noting how the next six months of the war can be brutal for Ukraine without the necessary artillery. 

Spartz, a Ukrainian-born lawmaker, asked the White House to provide Guided Multiple Rocket Launch System (GMLRS) or Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) munitions to her native country. 

“The next six months will be critical to the brutal war in Ukraine and longer-range capabilities will be crucial for its success,” Spatz said in a statement Wednesday. “The Biden Administration needs to be proactive for a change and provide proper security assistance to the Ukrainian Army more timely to deter further Russian aggression.” 

Spartz also added that it doesn’t make any sense to provide resources based on “the notion” that an 80 km rocket can’t reach Russia while a 300 km rocket can, noting how both countries “share over a thousands miles of border” with one another 

“What these capabilities would do is to help the Ukrainian military to better defend its cities in Eastern Ukraine where the Russian army has pulled back its artillery to a ‘safe’ distance on the occupied Ukrainian territories,” Spartz concluded in her statement. 

Spartz’s remarks come a month after Congress passed a $1.7 trillion government funding package that includes $45 million for Ukraine and other allies of NATO.

Meanwhile, prominent GOP lawmakers like Lauren Boebert (Colo.) have been public about their disapproval of the continuing aid to Ukraine in the latter half of the past year.

“Biden needs to understand that we are the USA not the US-ATM,” Boebert wrote on Twitter.