Top GOP lawmaker urges US to send fighter jets, missiles to Ukraine

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Sunday said he’s hopeful the U.S. will send more missiles and move to supply fighter jets to Kyiv as Russia’s war with Ukraine approaches its one-year mark. 

“The longer they wait, the longer this conflict will prevail,” McCaul said on CNN’s “State of the Union” beside fellow GOP Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio) at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. 

“We need to throw everything we can into this fight so that they can win and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky is going to tell us that soon, as well. He had a speech at the conference saying the same thing. And I think the momentum is building for this to happen,” McCaul said. 

In the wake of the Biden administration’s move to greenlight battle tanks for Ukraine, a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week pushed the Biden administration to answer Kyiv’s calls for F-16 fighter jets. 

The lawmakers argue providing the jets could tip the scales as Russia readies renewed offensives, Politico reported.

Asked on Sunday whether he thinks the administration will send the jets, McCaul said, “I hope so.”

Russia’s war on Ukraine will reach its first anniversary next Friday, and Moscow has reportedly been readying for an intensified offensive as the war hits that marker.