A Republican senator has said the war in Ukraine is beginning to ‘feel like Vietnam’ as he questioned United States policy in the region.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kanas, accused President Joe Biden of being bullied by Russia and China, and said the European Union was not doing what it should to help Ukraine fight off Russian aggression.
The war has been fought for 15 months, with the US and its allied pouring billions of dollars of military and humanitarian aid into helping Ukraine.
But with no end in sight to the conflict, Marshall saidthat the US should look at tightening sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s regime
“Now here we are, $113 billion later, the European Union is not doing what it said it is going to do,” he said.
“This is starting to feel like another Vietnam to me.”
He told Fox News that Biden had “still not maximised some of the other things we could do, like doubling down on the bank sanctions”.
He added: “There is more we can do, there is more our allies can do, and meanwhile Russia and China are bullying our president.”
He spoke out as Russia’s defence ministry and President Vladimir Putin claimed that forces of the Wagner private army have seized the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut with the help of Russian artillery and air support.
The ministry statement on the Telegram channel came about eight hours after a similar claim by Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Ukrainian authorities at that time said fighting for Bakhmut was continuing.
However, a statement from the Kremlin said: “Vladimir Putin congratulated the assault units of Wagner as well as all servicemen of units of the Russian armed forces who provided them with the necessary support and flank cover, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk (the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut).”
The eight-month battle for the city in eastern Ukraine is the longest and probably most bloody of the conflict in Ukraine.
