The attached interview above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.
The world has been on alert fearing that Russia may invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden says the threat is urgent. We talk with U.S. Senator Mike Rounds about the threat of war and the promise of diplomacy.
Transcript
Lori Walsh:
So we're speaking to you live at about noon Central Time, though people may listen to this later on. How is the situation unfolding right now?
Mike Rounds:
The most recent report that we have is that Mr. Putin continues to build his reserves and his resources in and around Ukraine. He has manpower reserves, equipment on the north of Ukraine on the east of Ukraine, and on the south of Ukraine. he continues to probe into their communication services, transportation services, and their ability literally to continue to provide utilities and so forth throughout the country. His goal is to: number one, disrupt, and second of all, to weaken the existing democracy within Ukraine. And he is doing it right now in such a fashion that he believes that it's one step forward and in his goals of trying to recreate a Soviet Union-type empire once again.
Lori Walsh:
You have been critical of US President Joe Biden about not using sanctions appropriately. You've been critical of former US President Donald Trump for his relationship with Vladimir Putin. Tell me what you think needs to happen right now from a diplomatic perspective to move towards solution.
Mike Rounds:
I believe there's still an opportunity to resolve the situation without the use of force. None of us are recommending the deployment of US forces to Ukraine. We don't have a treaty with Ukraine. We do have NATO agreements. And I think that we have to be able to share with our NATO allies that we are committed to our agreement under Article 5 for common defense. We also have to make Mr. Putin aware that there will be significant repercussions should he invade. And in fact, leading up to the invasion, my disagreement with President Biden has been that I think a number of those sanctions should begin as Mr. Putin continues to show additional force. As he builds up, we should make it more costly to him. At this point, there is no cost to Mr. Putin in his efforts to threaten Ukraine, and there has to be a cost to him.
Mike Rounds:
And hopefully, it would make him think twice about moving forward with the continued buildup and eventual invasion or attempts to disrupt the government of Ukraine. It's a democracy. He doesn't like that. And he knows that that's one of the greatest threats to his continuation power is a desire by people to govern themselves. So our perspective is: number one, make it costly for him. That doesn't mean that we bring in our troops, but we should be sending in lethal weapons, defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine to make it extremely expensive for Mr. Putin should he decide to invade or have an incursion into the sovereignty of Ukraine.
Lori Walsh:
What are some of the cyber threats that really the world is facing right now based on what we know about what Putin is already willing to do in Ukraine from a cyber attack standpoint?
Mike Rounds:
Russia has several tools available to them. First, they have their own government cybersecurity forces, offensive cybersecurity forces. They're very good. They get in and they are constantly probing other countries' infrastructure, electric utilities, power systems, telecommunications, transportation systems, and so forth in an effort to disrupt. They also have a very good system of trying to provide misinformation and disinformation. And what they try to do is to make it so that people don't trust the regular information coming out of legitimate news sources. Then in addition to that, as he probes that, he will attempt to make it difficult for the resupply of equipment, munitions and so forth, into an area such as Ukraine.
Mike Rounds:
Once he decides that if he's going to actually get into invading the country itself, he will also probably take a look at whether or not he can threaten other European countries by suggesting that he would use cyber activity to disrupt their power systems, their telecommunication system, transportation systems, and so forth in an effort to dissuade them from providing further assistance to Ukraine. They're very good at it, but he also has another part, and that are independent contractors who basically are criminals, who are very good at cybersecurity. They contract with him. And these folks will go on out at the bidding of Mr. Putin's regime and they will also try to do direct attacks in ways to either have for financial gain or for the disruption of their financial services and so forth. He uses both, government contractors as well as government employees. Both are at his disposal.
Lori Walsh:
So very briefly, Senator Rounds, I'm going to bring this home to South Dakota, athough certainly the cyberwarfare and there are many South Dakota troops. You know? I know some parents who have military members who are in Europe right now and on standby. And they're deeply concerned about what happens next. But here at Dakota State University in Madison, there's also an initiative to grow the state's cyber research industry. This is something you have been closely involved with. What you want to say about what's happening in Madison and how that could be a big part of the future?
Mike Rounds:
Yeah, the Dakota State University is focused on anything to do with cybersecurity. And that means financial services for banks, for organizations that are outside that need to protect their own computer systems and so forth. We want to double the number of individuals that graduate every single year with these very specialized degrees, specifically in both offensive and defensive capabilities in the cyber realm. Today in America, we fight not just in the air, land, and sea, but in space and in cyberspace. If you control cyberspace, it protects the individuals that are on the ground. Our men and women in uniform, before they go any place, before they go into any type of a confrontation, we always want to make sure that we have secured the cybersecurity background. That means in many cases, we actually use our systems to prohibit IEDs and so forth from going off. We shut down communications of our adversaries and so forth.
This is the type of a thing that has to be ongoing and you have to constantly be looking for new tools in order to infiltrate our adversaries. You also have to be able to protect our systems, the defense networks, and our public infrastructure from the attempts to continue to detect attempts from our near-peer adversaries and those rogue nations. Right now, you have very good capabilities found in communist China, in Russia, in North Korea, and in Iran; all of whom love the op opportunities to disrupt our capabilities. They know better in some cases because they also know that we can disrupt theirs. So there is an uneasy tension right now, but we have to be on guard and we have to constantly be probing for the next major breakthroughs, whether it be in artificial intelligence or whether it's simply be the newest tools available to our men and women in uniform to protect our country from those types of cyber attacks, which is ongoing. And I mean to the tune of literally million attempts per day within our systems.
Lori Walsh:
US Senator, Mike Rounds, thanks for making time for the listeners of South Dakota today. We appreciate it.
Mike Rounds:
Thank you.