Inside Utah Sen. Curtis' trip to Ukraine amid the war with Russia

WASHINGTON — The Senate just returned this week from its five-week recess. But that doesn't mean senators were necessarily on vacation; many were back home working and meeting with their constituents.

For Sen. John Curtis, his recess break took him far from home — all the way to the war in Ukraine.

Curtis participated in a congressional delegation, known as a "CODEL" in Congress-speak, to Ukraine last week with a handful of other senators from both parties, with a pit stop in Poland first. The "impetus to get the trip going" was the Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting, or YES Conference, that took place in Kyiv.

While in Poland, Curtis received briefings from the U.S. embassy, the Polish president's national security adviser and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his office told me. After that, the junior senator traveled to Ukraine, where he met with the minister of defense, spoke on a YES Conference panel, and was briefed by Ukraine's intel services.

The group had hoped to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while they were there, but scheduling conflicts got in the way of that.

"When you go over there, everything is fluid," Curtis told me.

Notably, Curtis and his travel partners went to Kharkiv, one of the earliest targets of the Russian invasion, located just 12 miles from the border. There, Curtis toured an underground bunker at an elementary school, and he witnessed how the Ukrainian military operates its frontline drone and infantry units.

"This is a war that's being fought very differently than other wars," Curtis told me in a sit-down interview in his D.C. office this week. "You go down there, and you watch these drone pilots fly drones into the war zone, and that's really the way this war is being fought: from a basement 12 miles away with these drones. We went with some of the commanders and the drone pilots and physically watched these drones attack, which was in some cases very dramatic."

The tour in Kharkiv marks the first CODEL to that area of the war since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, I was told. It was also one of the first congressional trips to Ukraine since the death of former Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was one of the biggest supporters of the war-torn country in its defense against the Kremlin.

I asked Curtis more about what the tone of these discussions was like, especially after the unexpected death of Graham, who died one day after visiting Ukraine earlier this summer.

"Everywhere you went, there was just tremendous respect for Lindsey Graham and a lot of love for him," Curtis said. "I think it's fair to say his passing was very fresh on everybody's minds out there, and the trip, at least for me, and I think for everybody, served the purpose symbolically to say: 'You have other friends. Lindsey's not your only friend,' and everywhere we went, they were looking for signals."

Here's more from my conversation with Curtis this week. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Cami Mondeaux: "I'm wondering what the tone of your trip was like, especially after the death of Sen. Graham and the Senate had just passed the Russia sanctions package." (Which passed the House hours after our interview.)

John Curtis: "Everywhere we went, they were looking for signals. I think it's fair to say they do get some conflicting signals from the United States. So, in many ways, it just felt like everybody that was talking to us was kind of watching for signals.

To me, it was very fortuitous that we had just passed the sanctions bill because it's one thing to say we support you, but to say we just passed 87-11 a sanctions bill — and whenever we said that, it almost made them, like, physically relax a little bit.

That's a big deal. And we, you know, explained about how things move in the Senate and how rare that is to get an 87-majority vote. It was very reassuring to them."

CM: "Do you think those conflicting signals are from what they're seeing in Congress, or conflicting from the White House?"

JC: "I would say the executive branch is where they're getting the conflicting signals."

CM: "So do you think with this sanctions package now moving in the House, that does help send the signal of support?"

JC: "Their next question was what's going to happen in the House. They understand our process enough to know that it had to go through the House. And while we were there, (House Speaker) Mike Johnson was still in a little bit of a mindset of 'I'm not sure we're voting on this.'

I think we found out while we were there that he was (scheduling a vote), and then that became part of our dialogue, that the House will pick it up. They were very attuned to symbolically what that meant."

CM: "I had seen on your social media after your trip that you said you came up with new ideas of what Congress will do moving forward. I'm curious what you think is next."

JC: "There was a constant request for air defense help. I think most people would think of that as Patriot missiles. It's not just that, and I think those of us that are over there knew the difficulty of giving them that, but at least coming back and saying, 'Let's see what we could do.'

I can say there were other requests that we felt like — whether it was legislation or a letter or just simply working with the administration, almost all of them were not necessarily for money. And I think that's an important message for the American people."

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Russia-UkraineUtah governmentPoliticsUtahWorld
Cami Mondeaux