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Republican senator recounts Ukraine visit: 'Images nobody should have to see in their lifetime'
By Charles Creitz
Published April 19, 2022
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines told Fox News on Monday that his recent trip to Ukraine was horrifying but important, in that it was key for a U.S. official to be on the ground.
Daines said his visit revealed the brutality of Putin's troops, and that some of the worst scenes were in Bucha, about 20 miles outside Kyiv.
"These are images that nobody should ever have to see in their lifetime... You could see the brutality of the Russians leveling these residential [areas]; This is where [civilians] were just living their lives, and then they were brutally murdered by the Russians," he said.
Shallow mass graves were prevalent in Bucha, he said, recounting witnessing Ukrainian coroners exhuming bodies to determine particular causes of death.
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A woman collect wooden planks in a street destroyed by shellings in Chernihiv, Ukraine. ( (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka))
"They opened [one] bag up. They asked me to take a glimpse. [With a] brief look at I could see a bullet wound in the back of the head of a man. I saw the body of a woman in one of the bags. It is brutal. These are war crimes and it was very important," he said.
Daines referenced the fact United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several other world leaders or top officials have been to Ukraine in recent weeks – pointing out a "noticeable absence" from the United States.
That, he said, is why it is important he went.
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Sen. Steve Daines. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)
"Nobody in the United States in terms of the United States elected official or appointed special cabinet has been there. I thought it was important to make that journey. It was a harrowing journey, Sean," he told host Sean Hannity.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ukraine-visit-steve-daines-montana-senator-hannity