U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, who often wears a Ukrainian flag pin on his lapel, has gone silent on President Donald Trump’s decision to halt aid and intelligence sharing to the embattled country, while only making vague allusions to the president’s repeated attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Mississippi Republican’s office has rejected repeated requests for comment from the Mississippi Free Press since Trump’s Feb. 28 Oval Office blowup with Zelenskyy, despite telling this reporter to “call me any time” for an interview at his campaign victory party last November.
Shortly after Trump kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House, Wicker removed a post he had made on X that morning that included a photo of him shaking hands with Zelenskyy.
Wicker, who is the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, spoke during the committee’s hearing on Tuesday, where he quoted Zelenskyy’s statement on Monday that reiterated “Ukraine’s commitment to peace.”
The senator also quoted from the framework of a proposed U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal but attributed the words to Trump himself. “The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace,” read the section of the deal Wicker recited. The document those words came from was dated Feb. 25, however—days before Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, derailing the deal.
Wicker said yesterday that he hoped that lawmakers would “refrain from some of the rhetoric that it’s tempting to make.”
“I hope this is a day when senators and members of the House of Representatives can take a deep breath and hope that the excellent, hopeful signs that come from this statement by President Zelenskyy come to fruition and come to fruition quickly,” he said.
In the hours since, however, the Trump White House has cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine even while pushing to lift economic sanctions on Russia that the Biden administration imposed as punishment for invading Ukraine in 2022.
Wicker told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that he would remain silent on Ukraine, despite being a long outspoken supporter of the U.S. ally.
“I think it’s incumbent on people like me to take a deep breath to let the process take place as it appears to be doing and to refrain from saying anything that might interfere with that there,” he said on March 4.
Trump Blamed Zelenskyy for Russia Invading His Country
The Mississippi Republican’s comments Tuesday were his first public statements regarding Ukraine since his Feb. 18 interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, when Wicker said Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a war criminal who should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.”
Wicker expressed “surprise” and said he was “disturbed” and “puzzled” on Feb. 12 after Trump-appointed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on Feb. 12 that returning to Ukraine’s pre-war borders was “unrealistic.”
Trump blamed Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of the country and called Zelenskyy a “dictator” on Feb. 20. About a week later, the Ukrainian president visited the Oval Office where Trump berated Zelenskyy and Vice President J.D. Vance called him ungrateful for the U.S.’s support.
Trump announced he was pausing U.S. military aid to Ukraine immediately on March 4, without explaining his reasoning beyond saying Zelenskyy “doesn’t want peace.”
No Substantive Comments Despite Repeated Calls, Emails
This reporter called Wicker’s office and emailed spokesperson Dirk Vande-Beek on Feb. 20 to get the senator’s response to Trump blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of the country. The senator’s office did not respond. On Feb. 28, this reporter contacted Wicker’s office to get the senator’s reaction to Trump shouting at Zelenskyy and calling him “disrespectful.” The office again did not respond.
After Trump paused U.S. aid to Ukraine on March 4, this reporter reached out to Wicker’s offices in Washington, D.C., Gulfport, Miss., and Hernando, Miss., to get a comment from the senator. No one in Washington, D.C., or Gulfport answered the phone. The spokesperson at the Hernando office told this reporter to call the Washington, D.C., office, and when this reporter tried to explain she had already unsuccessfully tried to call that office, the spokesperson hung up the phone.
This reporter emailed Vande-Beek on March 5 to ask for comment from Wicker for this story.
“I suggest you review the content and quotes on Senator Wicker’s website, and you’ll find the information you are looking for,” Wicker’s spokesperson responded. He was apparently referring to a posted transcript of the senator’s March 4 remarks, which did not address the Trump administration’s decision to suspend aid nor directly address the president’s continued attacks on Zelenskyy.
“I’ve had fights with my roommates over time. We got over it,” Wicker said on March 4, without specifying that the “friends” he meant were Trump and Zelenskyy. “I’m even told sometimes there are family fights. It’s regrettable when they spill out into the front yard. But friends get over it. Friends decide to move on. And I think we’re seeing that process today. I hope to heaven that that is the case.”
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Wicker’s office again on Wednesday to ask for comment regarding Trump’s decision to cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine and seek to lift Russian sanctions but did not receive a response by press time.
Trump’s First Impeachment Related to Ukraine Aid
This is not the first time Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine. In a phone call with Zelenskyy in 2019, he pressured the Ukrainian president to launch a sham investigation into then-opponent Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, ahead of the 2020 election. While discussing U.S. military aid to Ukraine on Sept. 24, 2019, Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor, though,” and then asked him to launch the probe.
Zelenskyy did not follow through on the request, and soon after the call, Trump halted billions in aid to Ukraine at a time when Russia was amassing on its border and threatening to invade.
The episode prompted Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, with Democrats accusing him of extorting an ally in an attempt to hurt his domestic political opponent. The U.S. House voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, but the U.S. Senate acquitted him in January 2020. U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican who voted to find Trump guilty.
Wicker and Mississippi’s other Republican U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, both defended Trump throughout the impeachment and voted not guilty.
The impeachment followed years of investigations of Trump’s ties to Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the 2016 campaign, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton accused Trump of being a “puppet” of Putin. Trump has long praised Putin and enjoyed a far warmer relationship with the Russian dictator than with U.S. allies like Zelenskyy.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2017-2019 investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia found that Russia had criminally interfered in the 2016 election to help his 2016 campaign and that the president’s campaign had welcomed it. Mueller, who was constrained by a U.S. Department of Justice rules forbidding the prosecution of sitting presidents, said he could not prove that Trump had criminally conspired with Russia or “draw conclusions about the president’s conduct.”
“At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” the Mueller report said. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Ashton Pittman contributed to this report.
Read the 2019 Jackson Free Press report, “Mississippi Lobbyists, Associates in Thick of Trump’s Ukraine-Russia Web.”