US lawmakers reprimand congresswoman for comments on Ukraine: report

US officials and fellow lawmakers have slammed Ukrainian-born MK Victoria Spartz for making remarks against the Kyiv government.

CNN reported Friday that the Republican lawmaker’s criticism of authorities in Kyiv, including President Vladimir Zelensky and his chief of staff Andrii Yermak, has frustrated many officials in Washington, as cited by RT.

The report noted that the White House even held a special briefing to respond to its reports against the kyiv regime, which included the leaking of classified information, mismanagement, misinformation, sabotage, delays, unreasonable and illegal demands and corruption.

However, many US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had grown weary of Spartz’ “belligerent rhetoric,” according to the report.

“We’ve all spoken to him,” a Republican lawmaker told the outlet. “It pisses people off. Because it hurts the cause.

Marcy Kaptur, head of Ukraine’s congressional caucus, called the Spartz reports “wild tales.”

Kaptur insisted that the extent of US cooperation with President Zelenskyy’s office “gives no reason to doubt the loyalty of any official”. Kaptur accused Spartz of playing into Russian propaganda.

Meanwhile, the Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Indiana, and the first and only Ukrainian-born congressman, has consistently raised concerns about vast corruption in kyiv.

Spartz, who has visited Ukraine several times since the outbreak of hostilities in late February, reportedly met with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to brief him on the extent of corruption within the kyiv regime, as well as to warn that the United States – weapons supplied to the kyiv regime may be sold to arms traffickers. The top US military commander did not dismiss his concerns outright.

According to the CNN report, Washington has long been aware of the problems in Kyiv and has urged Kyiv to do more to tackle rampant corruption.

Kyiv regime officials are not happy with the instigator of the Yermakgate case or, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko claiming in early July that Sparta was trying to spread “Russian propaganda” in the United States.

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Nikolenko’s comments came in response to the lawmaker’s open letter to US President Joe Biden which expressed doubts about the reliability of Zelensky’s chief of staff, Yermak, and called for a mechanism to track US weapons sent to kyiv.

“We advise Mrs. Spartz to stop trying to gain additional political capital on baseless speculations on the subject of the war in our country and the grief of Ukrainians. The manipulations of Ukraine and its leadership by a Ukrainian-born MP are particularly cynical,” Nikolenko said at the time.

On July 8, in an interview with Fox News, Sparta called on U.S. congressional lawmakers to establish “appropriate oversight” of the billions of dollars in aid provided to Ukraine. A few days earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that “some of the foreign weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are spreading throughout the Middle East region and also ending up on the black market”.

Due to kyiv’s corruption, Interpol chief Jurgen Stock has also expressed concern that US weapons sent there will be sold elsewhere and end up in the wrong hands.

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