Ukrainian-born congresswoman slammed after suggesting country should give up land to Russia: ‘An insult’ 

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) took heat from Ukrainians on Monday after arguing that Ukraine is not in a position to keep land taken by Russia during the three-year-long war. 

“I just don’t see how they [Ukraine] can be positioned to demand to keep the land. If they would be winning the war, that will be very different,” the Ukrainian-born congresswoman said in an interview with The Telegraph. 

“As I said two years ago, the best thing is to win wars as fast as you can,” Spartz added. “As long as it takes usually doesn’t end very well for democracies.”

Spartz, 46, was born in the northern Ukrainian city of Nosivka and immigrated to the US in 2000.

Despite her Ukrainian roots and initial support for US assistance to her native country, Spartz voted against a $61 billion tranche of aid to Ukraine last year and has endorsed President Trump’s decision to engage in peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“There are no easy solutions,” Spartz told The Telegraph. “President Trump inherited it, so now he has to deal with that.”

The congresswoman went on to slam Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, urging her countrymen to elect a different leader. 

“They will have an election, and then if they elect him, they’re going to lose the rest of the country,” Spartz warned.

The congresswoman’s comments didn’t sit well with Ukrainians on social media. 

“Recent Victoria Spartz’s statements are not advice. They’re an insult to a nation fighting for its survival,” Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, wrote on X.

“Ukrainians decide their own future, we don’t need instructions on who to elect or what land to ‘give up,’” Kravchuk continued, noting that Ukraine remains “committed to the peaceful efforts led by the US and our partners.”

“But peace cannot be built on humiliation – only on justice, freedom, and respect for a people who pay the highest price for these values every single day,” she added. 

Oleksiy Sorokin, co-founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent, argued that Spartz is “bats–t” and will “say anything to please Trump.”

“[U]sing the fact that she was born in Ukraine to tell Ukrainians living in Ukraine during war what they should do is insane,” Sorokin wrote on X.   

He further asked Spartz not to use “we” when discussing Ukraine – “a country you don’t know.”