White House: It Would Be ‘Hypocritical’ to Demand Other Nations Do More to Help Ukraine, the War’s About Sovereignty

During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Amanpour,” White House National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that because the war in Ukraine “is about sovereignty. It’s about independence” it would be “hypocritical” of the U.S. “to be browbeating or trying to tussle other countries to give more, do more” to help Ukraine.

Kirby stated that Biden’s “not going into this meeting with a shopping list or set of demands for President Lula. Look, we urge — and we’ve been very open about this — all countries to come to the aid of Ukraine and to hold Russia accountable for what it’s doing. But we understand that these are sovereign decisions these nations have to make, whether they give money, whether they give weapons, whether they give nothing, and certainly, whether they decide to come out publicly in condemning the war, that’s really their decision to make. The whole issue at stake in Ukraine, when you get right down to it, is about sovereignty. It’s about independence. And how ironic, how hypocritical would it be for the United States, in that sort of a frame, to be browbeating or trying to tussle other countries to give more, do more, say more? We obviously urge them to, but it’s really up to them, and we respect that.”

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