At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) questioned the State Department’s second highest official—Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman—on Ukraine, those left behind in Afghanistan and other important concerns.

           Smith said: “In a 2014 speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked the Obama Administration for military assistance—which he didn’t get—to defend against Putin’s invasion of Crimea and said 'One cannot win the war with blankets.’

            Last June, as Russia deployed more combat forces on Ukraine’s border, Politico and others reported that a modest military aid package had been put on hold. ‘Key items under consideration for the package include short-range air defense systems, small arms and more anti-tank weapons….’

            Can you tell the Committee what Ukrainian President Zelensky asked for over the past year—including air defense systems—that he didn’t get?

            Delay is denial.  Were there any delays? Will you give us the timeline of Ukrainian requests that were met and those that weren’t?

            As we push to prosecute Putin and his top officials as war criminals, his partner in theses crimes against humanity Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko must also be prosecuted.

            I’ve authored four Belarus democracy and human rights laws that sanctioned Lukashenko and others around him  in 2004, 2006 , 2011,  and  2020.  Now we know he is committing war crimes against the Ukrainian people as well. 

            Noticeably absent from his state of the union speech, President Biden last night did not explain nor give an accounting of nor provide any update whatsoever to the American people on the Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and what is being done to repatriate Americans and our Afghan allies left behind.

            Why were they forgotten?

            How many Americans remain in Afghanistan? 

            How many Americans remain in Ukraine and what are the plans to protect them?

            Over the weekend I met with over one hundred Ukrainian-Americans at my district office in Freehold.  They are desperate for more American and NATO help.

            Why were the oppressed people of China—including Hong Kongers, the genocide by Xi Jinping against the Muslim Uyghurs and the existential threat to Taiwan not addressed? 

            And no mention of our great friend and perpetually at-risk ally Israel?”