Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm over the Trump administration’s pointed refusal to blame Russia for starting the war in Ukraine, and they are highly skeptical about negotiating any lasting peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom some describe as a war criminal.
The Republican criticism of President Trump’s strategy for ending the war in Ukraine comes after the United States voted with Russia and its allies, such as North Korea and Belarus, against a United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression toward Ukraine and calling for the withdrawal of its troops from the country.
While GOP senators were willing to grant Trump broad deference on his controversial Cabinet nominees, they are doubling down in blaming Russia for starting the war and warning the president to approach Putin warily in any negotiation.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) blasted the American opposition to the U.N. resolution condemning Russian aggression.
“Yesterday’s vote by the U.S. against the U.N. resolution was shameful,” she said Tuesday.
The measure, which received the backing of NATO allies, passed the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly despite the U.S. opposition.
The United States instead backed a resolution that called for immediate peace in Ukraine but made no mention of Russia’s invasion for starting the conflict.
Collins said she agreed with Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) statement marking the third anniversary of the war, in which the former Senate GOP leader said refusing to blame Russia “as the undeniable and unprovoked aggressor” in the conflict “reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage.”
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said he was “deeply troubled” that the U.S. voted Monday with Russia and North Korea and against traditional allies such as Britain and France, which supported the resolution condemning Russia and calling for a restoration of Ukraine’s borders.
“I was deeply troubled by the vote at the UN today, which puts us on the same side as Russia and North Korea. These are not our friends. This posture is a dramatic shift from American ideals of freedom and democracy,” Curtis said in a post on social media.
He warned that any end to the war “must be achieved on terms that ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security” and “deter” Putin from future territorial aggression.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Tuesday marked the third anniversary of Russia’s “unprovoked war on Ukraine.”
“We all want this senseless war to end, but ending it on Russia’s terms would be a devastating mistake that plays right into Putin’s bloody hands,” Murkowski posted on social media.
She later noted Trump has “the authority” to pursue a peace deal but warned that any such deal would be “unacceptable” if Putin sets the terms.
“The president clearly has the ability, has the authority to be negotiating. But I think many of us have suggested that negotiating peace on Putin’s terms is not acceptable,” she told reporters.
Some of the strongest pushback in the conference came from McConnell, who now leads the Senate’s Appropriations defense subcommittee.
“America is right to seek an end to this war, but an end that fails to constrain Russian ambition, ensure Ukrainian sovereignty or strengthen American credibility with both allies and adversaries is no end at all. Instead, such a hollow peace would invite further aggression,” he said in a statement Monday.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he “disagreed” with the U.S. vote against the resolution condemning Russian aggression.
“Putin is a murderer who’s ordered the systematic capture, kidnapping, rape and torture of countless numbers of Ukrainians,” he said. “That would have been my vote recommendation.”
He argued Putin can’t be trusted to uphold any peace deal, a warning echoed by other GOP lawmakers.
“Putin’s a liar and looking for the next opportunity to continue [Russia’s] march through Moldova and the west Balkans and everything else,” he warned.
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “trying to understand” why the administration would oppose a resolution condemning Russia for the war.
“I’m trying to understand the negotiating strategy. I can imagine this was a strategic vote in order to negotiate a hasty and expeditious outcome to a horrible war,” he said. “I will withhold judgment or further comment until I learn more about that.”
But he said there’s no question that Russia is the aggressor in the war.
“I agree that Russia is the aggressor. I’m acknowledging it, and so many members of Congress are acknowledging that,” he said.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), speaking on the Senate floor, said Trump’s refusal to call out Putin as the aggressor has undermined U.S. leverage heading into the peace talks.
“The United States should have been willing to say this was an illegal war unjustly initiated by Russia. If you’re unwilling to state a truth, you begin in a very weak position,” he warned.
Other Republican senators pushed back on the reluctance of some high-ranking Trump administration officials to blame Russia for sparking the conflict three years ago.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a “Fox News Sunday” interview told host Shannon Bream “it’s a very complicated question” when asked if it would be fair to say Russia attacked Ukraine without provocation.
On Tuesday, Stephen Feinberg, the co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management whom Trump has nominated to serve as the Pentagon’s No. 2-ranking official, declined to assign blame to Russia during his Senate confirmation hearing.
“I don’t feel that I should publicly comment in the middle of tense negotiations when I’m not privy to the facts,” he said when asked by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to confirm that Russia indeed invaded its neighbor.
Trump last week suggested Ukraine was primarily responsible for the war but later walked back his comment.
The president said last week that Ukraine “should have never started the war” but later modified his statement by acknowledging “Russia attacked.”
Trump stirred some concern among defense hawk Republicans by refusing to call Putin a dictator when asked Monday about his comments last week calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”
“I don’t use those words lightly,” he said when asked whether he views Putin as a dictator.
Several Republican senators Tuesday, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), avowed that Russia is solely to blame for the conflict.
“We’re not confused about the facts. That is a fact,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said “Russia’s clearly the aggressor.”
He pointed to quote from the 1946 Nuremberg Trials International Military Tribunal he had posted on social media in response to the U.S. voting against the U.N. resolution condemning Russia.
“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole,” it read.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and prominent voice on national security issues, said “Russia is the aggressor.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) last week rejected Trump’s lenient view of Putin, telling CNN in an interview that the Russian president is a “war criminal who should be in jail for life.”
On Tuesday, Wicker told CNN that “it’s clear to most Americans that this war was started by Vladimir Putin’s aggression” dating back as far as 2014, when Russia invaded and seized Crimea.
“It seems to me that multiple administrations have not been as firm as we should have been,” he said.
