Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that a bipartisan group of senators agrees with President Volodymyr Zelensky that “Ukraine absolutely must be part of any negotiations between Russia and the United States.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: At the conference you’re at, you are able to speak with European leaders. What are they saying to you about their view of America now?
SHAHEEN: Well, we’re here in Munich, which is one of the biggest security conferences worldwide, and we have leaders from all over the world, a lot of European leaders. And we had a chance to meet with representatives from Britain, from Canada, not a European country, but also very concerned about Ukraine. With- people from the Balkan countries, with President Zelenskyy, obviously, and there is a great deal of concern about the U.S. position on Ukraine. At the panel that we had with President Zelenskyy, we talked about the importance of Europe and the United States acting in concert so that we can hold Putin accountable with sanctions, so that we can- so that there is no daylight between the United States and our NATO allies and our European allies. Clearly, that’s what Vladimir Putin has been trying to do throughout this conflict, and we need to make it clear that that is not going to happen, that we are going to work together and we are going to support Ukraine.
BRENNAN: Does Congress need to be any part of approving this deal President Trump says he wants, to take possession of some of the critical minerals that Ukraine has inside their territory? He says he wants to use that as sort of repayment for what the U.S. has spent on weapons.
SHAHEEN: Well, I think there are some benefits to having the United States have some investments in Ukraine. That’s part of what a critical minerals deal would do. It’s not at all clear who- who has possession of those critical minerals. Some of them are in the eastern part of Ukraine, where Russia controls the territory, some of them are owned by private- actually, oligarchs. There are some oligarchs who own a number of those critical mineral sites. So I think those are details that have not yet been worked out, and I have not seen the agreement that’s been put in front of President Zelenskyy.
BRENNAN: Well, we know Zelenskyy will be discussing that with other members of the administration. We’ll stay tuned on that, but I do want to bring up something that we–
SHAHEEN: Well, I just- I wanted to- one of the things that in our conversations with President Zelenskyy, that we talked about, that I know that he’s got to be concerned about, is making sure that Ukraine is at the table, whether literally, or however those negotiations work out, for any conversations about what happens in Ukraine, and President Zelenskyy reiterated, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. And I- he got reassurances from the bipartisan senators that he met with, that we agree, Ukraine absolutely must be part of any negotiations between Russia and the United States.
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