Menendez wants tougher sanctions against Russia

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Wednesday that the administration should impose tougher sanctions against Russia in the wake of additional ceasefire violations in Ukraine.

“In my view, we need to urgently increase the costs to Putin with tougher sanctions and by providing more security assistance to the Ukrainian military,” the New Jersey Democrat said during a floor speech.

{mosads}Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists reached a ceasefire agreement earlier this month, but Menendez said the deal was “dead.”

“There have been hundreds of cease-fire violations and the city of Devolibica has become under Putin’s control,” he said. “Unless bullies like Putin are confronted, they will always bully… They will always be an even greater problem for their neighbors and for the broader international community.”

Last year lawmakers passed legislation directing President Obama to impose additional sanctions and authorizing him to equip and train the Ukrainian military. But the president said that signing the legislation “does not signal a change in the Administration’s sanctions policy, which we have carefully calibrated in accordance with developments on the ground and coordinated with our allies and partners.”

Menendez, however, said it is time to fully implement the law.

“The legislation was necessary in December and even more so today… I appreciate the administration’s comprehensive efforts to counter Russian agression, but I also believe it is not enough,” he said. “Fully implementing the sanctions and the assistance in the Ukraine Freedom Support Act will help Ukraine restore its sovereignty. It will restore its territorial integrity, and it will help deter Russia from further destabalizing the region.” 

He added that in the meantime Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine has only worsened.

“Last time I checked, where I come from, if you have Russian troops crossing from Russia into another sovereign country, if you have surface-to-surface missiles, armored vehicles, and tanks and all of them are crossing without provocation, then you clearly have an invasion,” Menendez said. “You can take a soldier and take his Russian lapel off and put something else on, but it’s clearly still a Russian soldier coming from Russia.”