Republican Senator Roger Wicker told Poland's PAP news agency on Monday that damage to Polish railway infrastructure underscored that the conflict “goes beyond Ukraine and Russia and matters to the entire world.”
“Dictators, war criminals and would-be dictators are watching what we do, because the way we respond to this kind of provocation in a NATO partner country will be very, very significant,” said Wicker, who also chairs the US Congress’s Helsinki Commission.
The sabotage in Poland, along with Russian threats and hybrid warfare against NATO’s eastern flank, was discussed at a hearing of the Helsinki Commission, formally the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In remarks to PAP and Baltic media, Wicker criticized the Pentagon’s decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade rotating in Romania, saying it ran counter to the will of Congress, and voiced hope the move would be reversed.
"The presence of American soldiers is important for countries that are helping Ukraine, that value freedom and our alliance – NATO," he said. "That’s why I hope this will be fixed."
Wicker also backed a sanctions bill drafted by fellow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham targeting states that buy Russian oil and gas. Graham has said President Trump, after months of delay, agreed to accept the package.
Wicker said the Senate should vote on the measure soon and that consideration by Senate leaders showed they had received a signal from Trump and the White House that it was “a good idea.”
He also supported another Graham proposal to formally designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism if the Kremlin fails to return illegally deported Ukrainian children to their families.
At the Helsinki Commission hearing, lawmakers and invited speakers – including Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna – warned about Russia’s threat to NATO states and its ongoing hybrid warfare.
Tsahkna urged Washington not to pull back more U.S. troops from NATO’s eastern flank, saying any sign of withdrawal would be exploited by Moscow as proof that the United States was weakening and retreating because of President Vladimir Putin.
Other experts, Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Peter Rough of the Hudson Institute, argued that although NATO is a defensive alliance, it should demonstrate offensive capabilities in response to Russian provocations.
Rough, a former official in President George W. Bush’s administration, suggested the United States could conduct cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, such as shutting off power in the Moscow metro, or support Ukrainian strikes inside Russia and elsewhere.
Jones said Russia remained vulnerable to additional economic pressure, including secondary sanctions on tankers forming its so-called “shadow fleet.”
Both experts and members of the commission called for maintaining a strong U.S. military presence in Europe. Republican Congressman Jake Ellzey urged turning rotational deployments into permanent basing and referred to Putin as an “orc,” while Democrat Steve Cohen warned that today’s situation resembles the period before World War II.
(jh)
Source: PAP