WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was featured in a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment focused on Ukraine’s war against Russia’s bloody invasion entering its third year in the upcoming days. King, one of the most outspoken members of Congress supporting Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty and freedom, sat down with CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin and spelled out how the world must absorb the lessons of history — that authoritarians must be stopped, not appeased. Senator King — who supported the Senate passage of a Ukrainian aid bill this week — also stressed to Martin that America is giving the Ukrainians arms and ammunition, whereas the Ukrainians are giving their lives.

The CBS story began with the perspective of Associated Press reporter Mystislav Chernov, who witnessed the atrocities that came with the 2022 invasion, and then showed the toll this war is taking on the Ukrainians who are facing off against Russia.

When David Martin’s focus shifted to the American conversation, he turned to Senator King given his knowledge of the issue and his time in Ukraine with President Vladimir Zelenskyy. Martin asked of the risk of Congress not passing further aid to support Ukraine’s fight. “If we walk away,” responded King, “it will be the greatest geopolitical mistake this country has made in generations, and it will haunt this country for 50 years…. There'll be one of two results: Russia will just take over and the Ukrainian people's desire for freedom and democracy is gone; the other option is that it turns into a guerilla war where Ukrainians are fighting from behind trees and buildings."

The interview airs just days after Senator King voted in support of a bipartisan aid bill that will help Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan defend themselves. In the days prior to the vote, King spoke on the Senate floor to his colleagues and a nationwide C-SPAN TV audience that Ukraine’s fight is “a battle for the soul of Democracy in the world.” His comments on the floor were then run by Time Magazine as an extended opinion piece in the days after.

Last January, Senator King travelled with Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) in a visit to meet President Vladimir Zelenskyy in Kiev — with King wearing a sweatshirt featuring Maine’s Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain.

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