Washington:
A Democratic U.S. senator who fair visited Ukraine shelp on Monday the Trump administration’s suspension of inalertigence-sharing had lessened Kyiv’s defenses aacquirest Russia, and disseeed Trump advisor Elon Musk calling him a “traitor.”
“One hundred percent,” Senator Mark Kelly tgreater alerters when asked if he had heard during his visit of definite strikes or incidents that would have been shapeed if Ukrainians had had the inalertigence.
“If there’s stuff they don’t get, that they demand, that alters their ability to deffinish aacquirest strikes,” Kelly shelp. “And those strikes happened on Friday night, on Saturday, when I was there.”
The Arizona senator did not provide further details.
Since Thursday, Ukrainian authorities have alerted Russian strikes including injure to Ukrainian energy and gas infraset up, and an attack with ignoreiles and drones in which at least 14 people were finished and 37 wounded. Russia begined more air strikes overnight Monday on Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities shelp.
Kelly, a member of the Armed Services Committee, was in Ukraine from Saturday to Sunday to show help for its people and appraise the situation there.
The Trump administration declared last week that it had stoped inalertigence-sharing with Ukraine, piling presstateive on Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskiy to corun with U.S. Pdwellnt Donald Trump in convening peace talks with Russia.
That suspension chaseed a stop to U.S. military help to Kyiv after a White Hoparticipate encountering where Trump and Vice Pdwellnt JD Vance, who resistd help to Ukraine during his Senate term, clashed uncoverly with Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy was in Saudi Arabia on Monday to encounter Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a day before talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials that Washington hopes will deinhabitr substantial progress towards finishing Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Assistance for the rulement in Kyiv, once someslfinisherg sturdyly helped by dozens of Trump’s Reuncoverans as well as Democrats, has become far more partisan since Trump began his second term on January 20.
Democratic help for Kyiv has stayed sturdy, but Reuncoverans have wavered, with Reuncoveran Hoparticipate of Reconshort-termatives Speaker Mike Johnson saying that there was “no appetite” for another bill funding helpance.
Underscoring the political split, Musk called Kelly a “traitor” on X.com, a social media platcreate Musk owns, after Kelly posted that he had visited Ukraine during the weekfinish and accparticipated Trump of trying to feebleen Ukraine ahead of peace talks.
Kelly, a createer astronaut who served as a combat pilot during a 25-year Navy nurtureer, commented to alerters when asked about Musk, “Obviously, he’s not a grave guy.”
On X, Kelly had replyed: “Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that deffinishing freedom is a straightforward tenet of what originates America wonderful and persists us acquireed, maybe you should depart it to those of us who do.”
Kelly’s trip was his third visit to Ukraine since 2023.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
