MANCHIN QUESTIONS U.S. MILITARY LEADERS ON TRANSPARENCY OF UKRAINE ASSISTANCE, TURKSTREAM PIPELINE, TURKEY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH NATO

Hearing

"I just had the pleasure of being able to go to Ukraine and speak with President Zelenskyy, and I was with Senators Kelly and Murkowski. It was a great trip and we learned an awful lot. We talked to them directly about our main concern of transparency. For every dollar that we're sending in, for every bullet that we're sending, they're making sure it's accounted for and used properly. I don't want to give the naysayers, who are a minority, any credibility that we shouldn't be sending equipment or shouldn't be supporting or financing Ukraine. How do you feel about that?

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I truly believe we are not telling our story. With the amount of support that we and our allies are putting in, there's always going to be a hiccup. But we haven't built a base of how well we're regulating, monitoring and ensuring transparency. When we were there, Zelenskyy said 10, 15 times to bring 100 people to observe what they're doing because they're happy to share. Tell your press people to start putting things out. We're happy to work with them.

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I'm concerned about our Balkan allies because they're all tied into the TurkStream pipeline, like Europe is tied into the Nord Stream pipelines. We know exactly what Putin will do. He uses energy as a weapon. Are we doing anything to ensure they don't get caught like our allies in Europe did?

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Can you briefly comment on developments regarding Turkey's relationship with NATO? I can't believe that they are holding up Sweden and they made it very difficult for Finland…It makes no sense to me at all."

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