Video: Sen. Kaine Says “the quantity and lethality of the military aid that we’re providing Ukraine is dramatically escalating”

See below for video of Sen. Tim Kaine, speaking earlier today, in which (according to his office) he “talked about President Zelenskyy’s address to Congress today, applauded the DHS announcement that Afghans in the U.S. will receive Temporary Protected Status, and celebrated the preservation of the Monacan historic capital of Rassawek.”

• On Ukraine, Sen. Kaine called the situation “heartbreaking and tragic,” but that “the leadership of President Zelenskyy and others in the country in the face of this illegal war waged against them by Russia for no reason is heroic and the United States has assembled a coalition of allies that is undertaking in many many ways to assist Ukrainians as they defend their country.” That includes “humanitarian aid and military aid at a very very massive scale”; “devastating economic sanctions in coordination with our Western allies against Russia, and those sanctions are having a huge effect”; etc.
• “What we’re not yet seeing, at least not to our satisfaction, is a change in Putin’s calculation about this illegal war…We need to keep significant pressure on Russia…until we can find our way to peace.”
• “This morning, President Zelenskyy was heroic and also very vivid in both describing and showing video of the tragedy of this illegal war waged by Russia, and he asked us to do more…It is important that Vladimir Putin’s illegal effort to invade another country ultimately will run aground on the rocks of ruin…and obviously we pray that that is sooner than later.”
• On a possible “no-fly zone,” Sen. Kaine said that we don’t want this situation to “escalate into an all-Europe war,” and we “want Ukraine to defeat Russia,” not a world war. So, right now the idea is to “surge capacity – air defense systems, anti-tank missiles…the quantity and lethality of the military aid that we’re providing Ukraine is dramatically escalating to give them those defensive capacities.” “We want to provide them with the assets that are most likely to be helpful…”
• On gasoline prices, Sen. Kaine said he doesn’t want to do a “feel-good measure that doesn’t drop the price at the pump.” So, “dropping the federal gas tax would stop money from going into the Transportation Trust Fund for some period of time, but if doesn’t actually reduce the price at the pump, maybe there’s better strategies and we need to explore those.”
• On Daylight Savings Times, Sen. Kaine said this came up “last minute” for “unanimous consent,” but we’ll have to “see where it goes.”