DALLAS — Even though the Ukrainian Capital of Kyiv is nearly 6,000 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth, congressman Colin Allred says North Texans can expect to feel some economic pain should Russia invade the country.
“We may see higher energy costs come out of this. And we may see some of our supply chains either interrupted, or parts of it becoming more expensive because we’re trying to hit those parts of the Russian economy,” Allred said on Inside Texas Politics.
Allred serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and last month, the Democrat from Dallas was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to Kyiv and met with the Ukrainian president and other top officials.
And the congressman says their fight is our fight
Watch the segment below:
“It’s a democracy. It’s a fledgling democracy that is trying to set its own path. And they’ve chosen that they want to become more western,” he said. “This will be the first time, if Russia does invade, that we’ve seen a large-scale invasion of a Democratic country by an autocratic one since World War II.”
The congressman says nobody has any idea how long an armed conflict might drag on.
If it’s a full-scale invasion, he says it could be a prolonged conflict because Ukrainians will resist. While the U.S. is sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, Allred says it is different than years past because we aren’t arming a group or an ideological faction.
“We’re talking about arming a sovereign country with its own government, with a democracy, with accountability structures in place, with a military structure in place. And so, this is very different,” said Allred.