Manchin supports leaving Ukraine no-fly zone an option, banning Russian oil imports despite soaring inflation

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday he believed the option of declaring a no-fly zone above Ukraine should not be taken off the table, a move that NATO allies so far have avoided despite repeated pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy due to the risk of broader conflict with Russia. 

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a conference call with a bipartisan group of more than 280 congressional lawmakers, including Manchin.

“It was surreal to have a person on the front lines,” Manchin said about the call Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” basically, seeing his people being slaughtered and willing to withstand all of this and fight back and all he asks for was basically just help me, I’ll fight my own fight, just give me the tools to do it. And for us to hesitate or for anyone to hesitate in the free world is wrong. And he said that. He said if Ukraine falls, Europe may fall.” 

“Do you support a no-fly zone?” host Chuck Todd asked, noting that doing so could lead to a wider conflict. 

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“This is not the Russian people’s war, this is Putin’s war,” Manchin said. “But to take anything off the table thinking we might not be able to use things because we’ve already taken them off the table is wrong. I would take nothing off the table, but I would be very clear that we are going to support the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian president, his government every way humanly possible. Zelenskyy was very clear, he says we don’t need you to fight our fight, we don’t need you to fly our planes or fly your planes into our war zone. We need the planes, and we can fly ourself, and we have them on the border.”

Zelenskyy again on…