Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with U.S. Representative Tom Suozzi (D, NY-03) on April 5, while U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (background), U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D, IL-05), and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson (R, IA-02) stand nearby. Photo originally posted on Zelenskyy’s X/Twitter account.

Traveling to a strategically important foreign country as part of a Congressional delegation is an honor—but you wouldn’t guess that from how Iowa’s current representatives in Washington avoid talking about the experience.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 5 in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv Oblast. Zelenskyy posted that he briefed the bipartisan delegation “on the situation on the battlefield, our army’s urgent needs, and the scale of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.” He also “emphasized the vital need” for Congress to approve another military aid package to Ukraine.

Neither Ernst nor Hinson announced the visit in a news release or mentioned the trip on their social media. Since April 5, Hinson’s official Facebook page and X/Twitter feed have highlighted topics ranging from Hamas to Iowa women’s basketball, biofuels, a fallen World War II soldier, border security, “Bidenomics,” drought conditions, and solar eclipse safety. During the same period, Ernst used her social media to praise Iowa women’s basketball while bashing Hamas and President Joe Biden’s so-called electric vehicle “mandates,” “border crisis,” “socialist student loan schemes,” and federal policies on remote work.

Communications staff for Ernst and Hinson did not respond to Bleeding Heartland’s emails seeking comment on the trip and their views on further military aid to Ukraine. Both have voted for previous aid packages.

Congressional reporter Jamie Dupree commented in his Regular Order newsletter that it was “notable” the Democrats who just met with Zelenskyy talked about the visit, “while the Republicans did not.” Watching the social media accounts of Ernst, Hinson, and Representative Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, Dupree added, “you would have had no idea they had been on a trip to Ukraine.”

Similarly, U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (R, IA-03) visited Ukraine and met Zelenskyy as part of a bipartisan Congressional delegation in early February. He too did not comment on that trip in any press release, email newsletter, or social media post.

It wasn’t always this way. After Ernst led a delegation to Germany and Poland in March 2022 (a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine), Ernst’s office issued two press releases about the trip. Upon returning from Europe, the senator sought to publicize the visit in several television and radio interviews, as well as social media posts.

Ernst is a member of the Senate’s Ukraine Caucus and advocated for increasing U.S. military aid to Ukraine years before the current war, in response to Russia’s earlier occupation of Crimea. She has voted for most Ukraine aid packages that have come before the Senate, including the latest bill in February of this year. House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to bring that legislation up for a vote in the lower chamber.

Why are Iowa Republicans suddenly shy about voicing support for Ukraine? Why not tout a meeting abroad with the president of a U.S. ally?

One plausible explanation: former President Donald Trump opposes further aid to Ukraine and has said he will not help that country if elected president again. A large segment of the GOP base likes that stance. According to an August 2023 poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register, NBC News, and Mediacom,

Forty-three percent say they are less likely to favor a candidate who wants to continue aiding Ukraine in defending itself from the Russian invasion, while 35% say they are more likely to favor a candidate who supports military aid for Ukraine. 

The Republican National Committee’s new chair Michael Whatley, whom Trump installed to lead the GOP, has even portrayed Ukraine as an adversary. During an April 7 appearance on Fox News, Whatley claimed, “Joe Biden’s feckless leadership has shown China, has shown Ukraine, has shown Iran that they can feel free to be much more aggressive on the world front, to the point where even they will try and meddle with our elections here.”

Other European allies are increasingly alarmed about the failure of Congress to pass another Ukraine aid package. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur made several stops in Iowa on April 8 to meet with state elected officials about trade, agriculture, and military assistance to Ukraine. Speaking to reporters outside the Waveland Cafe in Des Moines, he said he has visited Ukraine several times during the war and understands that country’s need for ammunition and equipment. He compared Ukraine’s struggle to maintain its sovereignty to Estonia’s War of Independence against Soviet Russia (then a new regime) in the early 20th century.

Pevkur wasn’t scheduled to meet with any of members of Congress in Iowa, but he did ask Governor Kim Reynolds to press our state’s federal lawmakers to approve further support for Ukraine.

UPDATE: All four U.S. House members and both U.S. senators from Iowa voted for a foreign aid package including some $61 billion for Ukraine, which President Joe Biden signed on April 24.

Hinson finally spoke publicly about her visit to Ukraine following an event in Cedar Rapids on April 25. Tom Barton reported for the Cedar Rapids Gazette,

Hinson said the “fact-finding mission” helped solidify her support to get the foreign aid package “across the finish line.”

“So I thought it was really important, and my constituents thought that it was really important, that we know” and have “proper oversight“ on the funding and military equipment to ensure it reaches the intended recipients in Ukraine, Hinson said after touring the new location of Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids on Thursday morning.

The Marion Republican also met with the U.S. brigadier general in charge of the 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in southern Poland.

“And hearing directly from him about, ‘Hey, we know exactly where this equipment is going.’ The U.S. military is working directly with Ukrainians to not only get that equipment where it needs to go, but to maintain it and help us sustain that effort. That was really important to see it in person and hear directly from them,” Hinson said.

Hinson added that “Americans’ interests in Ukraine are more clear to me after that visit, and not just in Ukraine, but in Poland and Moldova, where we were also able to visit.”