U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, during a weekend visit to the Polish border with Ukraine, said he supports continued military and humanitarian assistance to the war-stricken country, but he does not back Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for a NATO-enforced no-fly zone.
“If there’s a no-fly zone imposed by NATO, it has to be enforced by NATO, so that would end up in a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and I think most recognize that is very dangerous and would result in the third world war,” Cicilline said in a telephone interview from Poland.
“But the good news is Ukrainians have been doing a very good job in their own air defense and they can continue to do it,” Cicilline added. “They just need aircraft and other equipment to be able to continue to do this.”
The Rhode Island congressman visited Medyka, a town on the Polish-Ukrainian border, as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation.
Cicilline said more than 1.5 million refugees have crossed into Poland, mostly women and children, due to the Russian invasion.
“Putin is bombing residential neighborhoods and children’s hospitals, and they are literally fleeing with the clothes on their back and one suitcase or one bag of clothing, and just leaving in order to stay alive,” he said.
Cicilline said Poland is doing “a miraculous job” in aiding the displaced amid the humanitarian crisis.
“It’s freezing cold,” he said. “These people are just terrified. There is not one of us that didn’t break down this visit. [It] was just so horrible to see the suffering.”
Cicilline said the congressional delegation met with humanitarian groups, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.
“We’ve only been here for two days,” he said, “but we all left with a firm commitment to do everything we can to help the Ukrainian people fight in this war and to protect them with as much humanitarian assistance as we can provide.”
Cicilline said he believes maintaining economic sanctions, as part of a broad alliance, is one of the best ways to encourage Putin to end the invasion.
