U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, says he's opposed to sending U.S. troops into Ukraine or participating in a no-fly zone since it would mean a direct confrontation with Russia that could escalate to nuclear war.
"We don't really want to get into an armed conflict with another nuclear power at this point," Rounds told SDPB on Friday.
A no-fly zone is when countries — sometimes backed by NATO and the United Nations — ban another country from flying its military planes in a designated airspace. Countries enforce it through surveillance, preemptive strikes or attacking any planes that violate the ban.
"I think if you did that you would find an immediate confrontation with Russia," Rounds said. "If NATO were to say that they were going to impose a no-fly zone then they have to be prepared for the consequences of that."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a no-fly zone over Ukraine and says his country is being left to fend for itself against Russia's invasion since allies aren't sending in troops.
Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons as part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum it signed with the U.S., United Kingdom and Russia. NPR reports the countries agreed to respect Ukraine's boundary and defend it from attacks, but it was not legally binding.
Rounds said the U.S. doesn't have an obligation to directly defend Ukraine since it's not a member of NATO.
However, the United States has previously intervened in non-NATO countries, including pushing Iraq's invading force out of Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1990.
But Iraq did not have nuclear weapons.
"We're not looking for nuclear war, but Mr. Putin though is pushing the issue," Rounds said. "He actually did a demonstration with the missiles that would be used to launch a nuclear attack. And that was not by accident. He did that on purpose to tell everybody he had nuclear weapons he wasn't afraid to use."
President Joe Biden is also opposed to sending U.S. troops into Ukraine. But he's sent weapons to the country and troops to bordering NATO states while implementing sanctions on Russian leaders and financial institutions.
Rounds supports these moves but also wants Biden to shut Russia out of SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
SWIFT underpins the global financial system, handling millions of secure messages every day to help banks manage transactions around the world, according to NPR. Removing Russia from SWIFT would have a major impact on the country's finances.
Rounds, Sen. John Thune and Gov. Kristi Noem also say Biden should boost American energy production to undercut money Russia is making from its sales.
Rounds said approving the Keystone XL Pipeline and allowing more production on federal lands wouldn't necessarily have prevented the war.
"We're guessing only, but it would have made it more difficult for Mr. Putin to have made the decision to go in, because if he knew that we were continuing to provide additional and new sources of energy, that would have kept the price of crude down for him, which would have given him less money to spend on the war," Rounds said.
Rounds said it's Putin's responsibility to end the war, and he might only do that if there are significant Russian casualties.
"Russian mothers love their children just like American mothers do and what they don't want to see are body bags," Rounds said. "And Mr. Putin has a very difficult time justifying his war if the body bags continue to return to grieving mothers in Russia. And I think that is something that unfortunately has to happen."
Rounds said the war could eventually lead to Russians ousting Putin.
"I think this will weaken his regime to the point where the individuals that choose to lead Russia — whether it's the oligarchs or otherwise — will basically remove him, and I think they'll do that because they don't want the pain that's going to be inflicted on their land just because he wants to recreate the Soviet Union again."
