The Following Statement was Issued by CD-11 Republican Candidate Paul DeGroot on the Ukraine Invasion:

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Russia is an international crime that cannot go unpunished. Every action that can be taken must be taken to force Putin to reverse his course or face consequences that will be devasting to him, the Russian Oligarchs and the people of Russia who support Putin.
First – let me express my deep concern for the Ukrainian-Americans with families in the Ukraine. I pray for their safety and for a swift end to Putin’s atrocities.
It is obvious that Putin would not have taken so bold an action if he did not perceive President Biden and his administration as weak. It’s hard to imagine Putin invading the Ukraine with President Trump in office.
Every action that the Biden Administration and Congress’s liberal Progressive Democrats have taken since January 2021 has accrued to Putin’s favor and showed weakness on the international state. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a disastrous embarrassment for the U.S. – and I am sure that Putin and China leaders were paying close attention
Biden’s cancelling the KSL pipeline, killing the good paying jobs that went with it and discouraging oil and gas production in the United Stated has played right into the hands of Russia. So has Biden’s approval of Nord-Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, which was designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany.
In response to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, Germany has backed away from the Russian pipeline opening. But with gas and oil prices guaranteed to rise dramatically in coming weeks, how long can Germany and other European nations hold out and how much will they suffer?
Unfortunately, the U.S. is in a weak position to help our European Allies with their energy needs. Thanks to the Progressives in Congress, America is no longer energy independent. We are counting on other nations to generate oil and gas for us – which one reason gasoline prices are skyrocketing.
Biden’s appeasement of Putin, like Great Britain’s appeasement of Hitler when he invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 will prove disastrous for the world.
The lack of emergent concern from our dithering Congress is astounding. They would rather play divisive identity politics at home than make serious efforts at dealing with the geopolitical chess match that Russia and China are playing.
In late January, Liberal Congresswoman Mikie Sherril journeyed to Europe with other congress people to discuss the Ukrainian situation. From reports of her visit, she seemed to spend more time in Brussels drinking coffee than doing anything meaningful about the Ukraine’s dire predicament. Her babbling reports about her trip are banal. She told MSNBC that Putin would “hopefully” back down after seeing NATO united. How wrong was this so-called Russia expert?
https://www.yahoo.com/now/jersey-congresswoman-reacts-ukraine-response-122150542.html
My hope is that the economic sanctions against Russia will work, but if they do, they will not work immediately and a lot damage will be done to the Ukraine and lives will be lost before, or if, Putin reverses course. And let’s not overlook the economic consequences for the United States. This is the unfortunate price of confused policies that spell weakness to world tyrants.