Hurd: US should have been planning with allies, Ukraine to take advantage of chaos in Russia

Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd said on Sunday that the U.S. should’ve been planning with their allies and Ukraine on ways to take advantage of the internal chaos happening in Russia. 

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Hurd told co-anchor Jonathan Karl that he was disappointed to see the Biden administration’s response to the situation happening in Russia, adding that the strife between the Kremlin and the Wagner Group, a private Russian military contractor organization, should’ve been an opportunity for the U.S. and its allies to take advantage of the situation. 

“When there’s uncertainty and chaos, that’s actually an opportunity, that’s actually an opportunity for us to double down on our friends. You know, that we had intelligence reports that suggest that this was going forward, we should have been planning with our allies, we should have been planning with the Ukrainians on how to take advantage of this opportunity,” Hurd told Karl. 

“We should be supporting the Ukrainians more,” Hurd added. “I think that even goes as far as doing a, a no-fly zone and helping them enforce that a no-fly zone.” 

Hurd, a former U.S. congressman from Texas, also told Karl that he gets frustrated with the “old fashion concept of escalation,”noting how the Biden administration has previously mentioned not helping allies due to fears of escalating the ongoing situation. 

“And so, we should, we should, we should learn from that. And look, it’s not just Joe Biden, it’s unfortunate, the two leading Republican nominees for President Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis policy on Ukraine is wrong,” Hurd said. “They wish — I wish they would stop fighting with American companies like Disney and be more interested in supporting our allies against attacks, against democracy.”

Hurd’s remarks come after Wagner Group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin urged an armed rebellion over the weekend to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, also challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the country’s ongoing war with neighboring Ukraine.

Though Putin vowed to put down the “armed mutiny,” Prigozhin eventually ordered his army to stop their advance after reaching an agreement with Belarus.