Republican Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for weak leadership Wednesday in exclusive comments to the Daily Caller.
“He is good at playing a hero and making grandiose statements on TV but not as heroic when it comes to fighting a real fight against Putin,” Spartz, who was born and raised in Ukraine, told the Daily Caller.
“[He] did not get [the] country ready before the war; did not deal with corruption and Russian assets in his government, and when he pretends to do it it’s just for the show – no one gets punished,” she stated.
“[He] did not put [the] country in the military mode when major war advanced in 2022; made a lot of military decisions based on theater presentations not proper strategy; is afraid of free media and criticism, so is terrorizing and smearing anyone who criticizes him.”
Zelenskyy consolidated Ukraine’s cable news outlets, dissolved opposition parties and cracked down on the country’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), in 2022. (RELATED: ‘Inflation Is Nothing’: Ukraine President Dismisses Americans’ Economic Woes)
Spartz also chided Ukraine’s corruption and alleged that the the country’s notoriously dubious businesses and government officials frequently influence Zelenskyy.
“[He] panics easily and is controlled by crooks and shady individuals around him; and is intimidated by the military or any strong individuals, unfortunately seeing many heroic people as political opponents and trying to destroy them,” Spartz told the Daily Caller.
Zelenskyy has ejected top military officials from his security services and other branches of his military for what he says amounts to treason.
“It does not help when [the] Ukrainian government mishandles their own money not going to the war efforts, and [is] asking us then to help them to finance their internal budgets. You can read a lot of articles about it but [I’m] not sure if anyone was ever punished with real consequences – not just replacing old friends with new friends to line their pockets,” she told the Daily Caller.
Spartz, who voted against House Speaker Mike Johnson’s $60.8 billion amendment for Ukraine aid in April, previously expressed her disappointment at the denigration she received after criticizing Zelenskyy. (RELATED: Speaker Johnson Says No Ukraine Aid Without Border Funding After Meeting Zelenskyy)
Originally lionized by the corporate press as the standard-bearer for the “we need to be doing more for Ukraine” camp, the media quickly turned on her after she refused to toe the line on Zelenskyy.
“I actually was very surprised at, like, you know, how much attack I got. As an American congresswoman I shouldn’t question a foreign government that I left 24 years ago?” Spartz questioned during a Monday appearance on the PBD Podcast.
“I am proud of my Ukrainian heritage but I separate heritage from government,” she told PBD.
Spartz has been a vocal proponent of increased oversight on the funding the U.S. funnels to Ukraine. In July 2022 she asked President Biden to brief Congress on Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak. She highlighted intelligence alleging Yermak may have had “dealings in connection with Russia.” She wrote that intelligence also alleged that a Yermak deputy delayed the appointment of an independent anti-corruption prosecutor for over a year.
“We owe this level of rigor and accountability to the American people,” she said in the letter to Biden.
Spartz told the Daily Caller she had numerous amendments aimed at increasing oversight on Ukraine funding pass the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) but that the amendments were ultimately pulled from the final Senate version of the bill, which Biden signed into law in 2023.
“I actually had several amendments pass the House in the NDAA, including better reporting to Congress which countries and companies are receiving funds from the aid to Ukraine, which were taken out by the Senate. I also put pressure in 2022 to implement point-to-point logistics to frontlines with oversight by Americans for lethal aid, which was blocked by Ukraine; better training and remote capabilities, which was partially implemented a few years later; and urged the administration to have a joint task force to have better coordination, oversight and strategy,” Spartz told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: ‘Not Possible’: Ukrainian-Born Rep. Spartz Says Zelenskyy’s Plea For No-Fly Zone Won’t Happen Anytime Soon)
Spartz, who became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. when she married her husband, was appointed to Indiana’s state legislature in 2017. She helped found the Hamilton County Tea Party and was elected to represent Indiana’s fifth district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020. She was re-elected in 2022.
After initially announcing her retirement in 2023, Spartz reversed her decision and decided to run again. She faces a tight race with opponent Charles Goodrich in her upcoming May 7 Republican primary. She led him by three points in a recent Mark It Red poll, which was sponsored by Goodrich, according to FiveThirtyEight.