Edwards visits Ukraine, stresses urgent need to safeguard American, global security against Russia
Congressman Chuck Edwards meets with McDowell County, N.C. native Brig. Gen. Jerry Baird, commander of the 82nd Airborne's forward operating base in Poland.
The congressman and a bipartisan group of five other lawmakers visited with U.S. troops deployed to Poland and government officials in Moldova, along with active war zones in Ukraine and places that are critical to Ukraine’s defense efforts against Russia.
The trip included discussions between Edwards, foreign leaders - including with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski; Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Military, General Wieslaw Kukula; and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy - U.S. embassy staff, military leaders and war crimes victims.
Edwards said, “The Ukrainian democracy, as imperfect as it may be, is quickly crumbling to Vladimir Putin, a card-carrying KGB Marxist murderer with no regard for human life.
“From our inception, America has fought for principles of freedom, self governance, and human dignity. And we’ve stood with - and need to continue to stand with - a world order that embodies the same.
“At this moment in Ukraine, civilians are being tortured and murdered, children are being kidnapped, sexual assault is being used as a weapon of war, and Christians are being persecuted.
“Our nation can no longer allow itself to fall prey to Putin’s propaganda about this war. Now is not the time for America to hide in isolationism, as Putin is trying to manipulate us to do.
“I look forward in the upcoming days to sharing what I saw and heard on the ground in Ukraine, and to work with my House colleagues on how America can responsibly participate in stopping Vladimir Putin.”
In Poland, Edwards met with U.S. soldiers from North Carolina, including Marion, N.C., native Brigadier General Jerry Baird (pictured above). Thousands of American troops are currently stationed in Poland as a deterrent force to protect the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) eastern flank from Russian aggression.