Two GOP lawmakers become first U.S. officials to visit Ukraine since Russia’s invasion

A pair of Republican lawmakers traveled to Kyiv Thursday, making them the first U.S. officials known to visit Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in late February.

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who shared photos of the trip, and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana visited the Kyiv suburbs and mass graves in nearby Bucha. The Montana Republican said the world needed to see what Russian President Vladimir Putin had done.

“There is indisputable evidence of Putin’s war crimes everywhere—the images of shallow mass graves filled with civilians, women and children are heart wrenching,” Daines said in a statement. “America and the world need to know about Putin’s atrocities against the innocent people of Ukraine now, not after time has passed and the aftermath of evil and bloodshed have been cleaned up.”

The bodies of 410 civilians were removed from Bucha and other suburbs in the aftermath of Russia’s destruction there, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, said earlier this month.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine amounted to “genocide,” the first time he has leveled the accusation against Putin.

Daines said he was invited to meet with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv and Bucha after meeting with leaders in NATO countries bordering Ukraine. In late March, he joined a bipartisan congressional delegation that visited Poland and Germany.

Spartz, the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress, recently sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the Biden administration to redeploy American diplomats to Lviv to help with coordination in Ukraine.

“We must be engaged to stop this atrocity and bring back peace and order to the European content,” she wrote.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in a briefing Thursday that the agency is “constantly evaluating and re-evaluating the safety and the security situation,” noting that the goal is to re-establish a U.S. diplomatic presence as soon as it is “safe and practical” to do so.

He argued that the lack of U.S. diplomatic presence on the ground “has in no way hampered our ability to coordinate and to consult with our Ukrainian partners.”

Kate Santaliz and Abigail Williams contributed.