Sen. Hollen: Russia’s Invasion Will Be Seen as a “Failure”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Here now is Senator Chris Van Hollen. He’s a Democrat from Maryland. Senator, welcome to the program. You may have just heard the former deputy commander of NATO saying that all of this unity is really impressive, the U.S. gathering this global coalition as well, but it also has to be matched by us power, in terms of defending Ukraine and really putting a wall of steel against what might be a new border in Europe. What do you make of that?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Well, Christiane, it’s good to be with you. As you said, President Biden last night spoke on behalf of all Americans, who were inspired by the Ukrainian people standing up, and we’re going to be matching that rhetoric with redeployments, reinforcements of NATO’s flank, especially the front-line states. That’s already started. More U.S. forces have been deployed. And we expect here in Congress to pass approximately an $8 billion emergency supplemental to both support the humanitarian effort, but also the continued arming of the Ukrainian military in the coming days.

AMANPOUR: What can you tell us, if you can, about what you may have been briefed on the current battleground situation?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I can speak to what’s been in the public domain. And, as you know, that’s been reflecting the views of our military. Even before the invasion started, they did a very good job of getting the intelligence out there. It gave us the time to work with our European allies in advance to get ready and impose the sanctions, the punishing sanctions. Look, I think we all believe that Putin thought that he’d be able to march much more quickly into Ukraine, into Kyiv. He’s certainly been slowed down dramatically. The Ukrainian resistance has been huge and inspiring. And, at the same time, of course, he has overwhelming, massive firepower and troops. But — so who knows exactly how this will unfold. But I think what we do know, as your earlier guest was just saying, is that, in the long run, Putin is not going to be able to hold out and occupy Ukraine and cities like Kyiv, because you have got 44 million Ukrainians who don’t want Putin there. And in the long run, this will be seen as an epic miscalculation, a strategic failure by Vladimir Putin. We need to do everything we can right now and in a sustained way to make sure that happens. We’re doing this. We’re taking the steps necessary now, I believe.