WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, on Thursday released the following statement after reports that President Trump lifted his hold on U.S. aid to Ukraine: 

“I’m glad President Trump decided to lift his personal hold on U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, but it’s unfortunate it took the prospect of an embarrassing vote in the Appropriations Committee to get him to change his mind. His ambivalence signaled tremendous weakness to Russia and needlessly shook Ukrainian confidence in the reliability of the United States. It was also the first significant breach in traditional bipartisan support for an independent and strong Ukraine” said Murphy. “Withholding these funds was a gift to Putin. The stronger Ukraine becomes economically and politically, the higher we raise the costs for Putin to meddle there. This is the precise reason we must continue to support President Zelensky, by providing military and non-military aid and not playing partisan political games that jeopardize our bilateral relations. Congress also has a role to play here, by requiring the administration to disburse this funding in our appropriations package when it comes to the full Senate for a vote.” 

Last week, Murphy traveled to Ukraine, Serbia, Kosovo and Germany where he spoke directly with President Zelesnky about this issue. Last month, Murphy blasted the administration’s decision to withhold this aid. In May and following reports that Rudy Giuliani was traveling to Ukraine, Murphy sent a letter to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch to submit an official congressional inquiry to the Trump administration about why a private citizen was traveling to Ukraine to work with a foreign government in a Trump campaign re-election effort. 

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