JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s deadly salvo against Ukraine calls for Congress to fire back” – Washington Post
“The Soviet Union designed the S-300 … mobile, surface-to-air defense … system[] during the Cold War …. Russia unleashed 14 … offensively at cities in Ukraine …. part of a wave of missiles and drones … [in] the largest one-day aerial attack on Ukraine …. ripp[ing] into 45 multistory buildings, including schools, churches, hospitals, maternity wards, shopping centers and warehouses, as well as Ukrainian military installations and a defense factory. It killed 40 …. a reminder that … Putin … enters the new year with the same old objective: to crush Ukraine’s sovereignty along with the country’s hopes to become a democracy affiliated closely with the [EU] … and … NATO. … The best answer … is for Congress and the White House to … strike a compromise … allow[ing] aid to Ukraine and Israel, and a package for the southern border. Absent congressional action, pressure will grow for the United States and Europe to seize $300 billion in frozen Russian assets and turn them over to Ukraine. This move, which carries its own risks to the financial system, might eventually be necessary to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine, but … the supplemental appropriation [would be far more preferable at this point]. …”