Indiana Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz revealed in an emotional TV interview that her 95-year-old grandmother had to relocate to the basement of her apartment building in Ukraine after the neighboring building was bombed amid Russia’s brutal invasion.
Spartz, who is the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress, recounted the terrifying episode as she appealed for military aide for Ukraine and said Russian President Vladimir Putin should be investigated for war crimes.
‘Interestingly enough, my grandma turns 95 today and we couldn’t reach her,’ Spartz told Fox New in an interview.
‘My mom just called me a few minutes ago and told me that we reached her neighbor and the building next to her was hit so it blocked all of her windows in the apartment and they moved into the basement,’ she continued.
Indiana Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz said her 95-year-old grandmother living in Ukraine had to relocate to the basement after the building across the street was hit with explosives
She said her grandmother was safe in the basement but the humanitarian crisis had reached a new level in the country where she was born.
‘I was just listening to the mayor. Saying they hit directly buildings, blood banks, schools, water towers, electric facilities. They have nothing. People in the basement with no food, no electricity, nothing. My friend just called relatives in the city by Kyiv. They are on the ground crying and they tried to talk to Russians to have safe passage they didn’t do it,’ she said.
‘They actually bombed train stations and train cars to make sure people cannot get evacuated,’ she said, calling for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to assist with evacuations.
Asked about the attacks on civilian targets, she said advocates were ‘documenting’ what was happening to ensure ‘there is accountability.’
These aren’t military targets. They are places where civilians work and families live. We’re looking very closely at what is happening in Ukraine right now including what’s happening to civilians. We are taking account of it. We’re documenting it. And we want to insure among other things that there is accountability for it,’ Spartz said.
Rep. Burgess Owens (L) (R-UT) hugs Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) following a press conference before President Biden’s State of the Union speech. Ukrainian born Spartz delivered an emotional appeal for further U.S. support for Ukraine during the press conference
A man goes past burned buildings that were hit by shelling in the small city of Borodyanka near Kiev, Ukraine, 03 March 2022. Spartz said observers were taking account of attacks on civilian targets
Spartz also called for more arms to help the Ukrainian people fight
Burned buildings which were hit by shelling is seen in small city of Borodyanka near Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine, 02 March 2022
She has compared the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin to genocide
Spartz said her grandmother lives in Chernihiv. This grab made from a handout video released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, shows a damaged apartment building which is said was hit by shelling in Chernihiv on March 3, 2022. Nine people died and four were injured after Russian forces hit residential areas, including schools, in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the local governor said on March 3
Spartz said Putin’s assault is ‘not a war’ but an ‘extermination of people’ in comments to Fox news
She noted that the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court, but said: ‘People need to have responsibility for the genocide, for killing people, for war crimes. It is not a war, it is killing, extermination of people.’
She also spoke emotionally about the invasion on Tuesday, when she said Russian force are bombing Chernihiv, where her grandmother lives. ‘They are bombing civilians, nonstop, day and night, the whole city,’ she said.
‘They are leveling the cities to the ground, destroying the people,’ she said. ‘They are slaughtering them like animals.’
She also blasted Biden on the day of his State of the Union speech, saying he ‘talks about, talks about, and doesn’t do things,’ although his comments on Ukraine ended up earning plaudits from members of both parties.
‘What, is he going to wait when millions have died, then he’s going to do more?’ she asked. “We have not just a moral duty, we are the leaders of the free world.”
Her comments come amid a push to provide humanitarian as well as military aide to allow the Ukrainians to defend themselves from the Russian onslaught.
The Biden administration is asking for a supplemental appropriation including $10 billion to address the emerging humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as well as protect its digital grid from cyber attacks, the Washington Post reported.
She said she met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on the issue Tuesday.
She said he is determined to get it moving. ‘I told him we don’t want to have this big package with a lot of junk’ and called for dealing with it like the Congress dealt with COVID’ – when assistance packages passed with bipartisan majorities (although Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed on a series of party-line votes along with stimulus measures).
‘If we would have a narrow approach to deal with the problem there is much more bipartisanship on this issue,’ she said.
Kherson, a city of 300,000 on the Black Sea, appears to have fallen under Russian control after the mayor said ‘armed visitors’ had taken over a council meeting and imposed curfews. If Putin’s men are in full control then it opens up the city of Odessa, home to Ukraine’s main naval port, to attack – with amphibious assault ships seen forming up near Crimea today
A diesel fuel storage facility burns in Chernihiv after being struck with a Russian shell
Nine people died and four were injured after Russian forces hit residential areas, including schools, in the northern Ukrainian city
Located to the north-west of Kyiv, Chirnihiv has been the site of fierce fighting with Russian troops since the early days of the invasion but is still under Ukraine’s control.
This afternoon, a Russian airstrike killed at least 22 civilians in the northern city, and rescuers are still searching the debris for bodies.
Earlier today, at least nine people were killed and four wounded in a Russian air strike that hit two schools and private houses in the region.
Footage from a car dashboard camera, verified by Reuters, showed buildings in a residential area in Chernihiv hit by apparent missiles.
The street was engulfed in a fireball and a huge cloud of black smoke rose into the sky.
The mayor says he is struggling to organise safe passage for civilians.
A huge fire also erupted at an oil depot after being bombed by Russian invaders this morning.
