Former Nebraska state senator heads back to Ukraine to show support

Yahoo

14-04-2025

The front-line of a military group in Donetsk, Ukraine, shelters from artillery. State Sen. Tom Brewer joins them in the bottom left. (Courtesy of Noah Philson)
LINCOLN – A former state senator and decorated U.S. Army veteran is headed again to Ukraine in hopes of providing reassurance that Americans still support the country's fight for freedom against Russia.
This month, former Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon is making his fifth trip to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, and he feels it might be the most precarious.
The war, he said, has morphed from a battle at the front of artillery and tanks, into an exchange of cheap but dangerous drones and Russian 'glide bombs' that can't be detected by air defense systems.
'It's a difficult place to go right now,' Brewer told the Examiner. 'We want to see [Ukraine] win this war, and we want to do everything we can to boost their morale. I think they're struggling right now.'
An additional goal of the latest trip, he said, is to make connections with agricultural officials in Ukraine. Nebraska, with its farm building and equipment sector, could play an important role in rebuilding the country, according to Brewer.
'If we don't do anything until the war ends, we'll lose that opportunity,' he said.
Don Hutchens, a retired head of the Nebraska Corn Board, is among those traveling to Ukraine this time. A Lincoln-based television reporter, John Grinvalds, is coming again to document the trip.
Brewer, an expert sniper who was wounded twice during six tours of duty in Afghanistan, used his previous trips to Ukraine to serve as an unofficial representative of the U.S. and as a military observer who relayed information gleaned from officials and soldiers at the front to the Nebraska delegation in Congress and the State Department.
The information included the effectiveness of American aid, ammunition and weapons and what else the Ukrainians might need to repel the invasion.
But this trip — a year after the last one — will be different because of the dramatic shift in U.S. policy toward Ukraine after President Donald Trump took office. Trump suspended $1 billion in American aid to Ukraine, and, in a combative White House meeting last month, scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over his insistence that Russia could not be trusted.
Trump, later, stated that Zelenskyy was 'not ready for peace.' Meanwhile, negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin have failed to result in a complete cease fire or peace deal.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine before he took office or within 24 hours of becoming president. The Associated Press recently reported that Trump has admitted those boasts were a 'little bit sarcastic,' though the president was also quoted that he was optimistic that he could broker an end to the war.
Brewer, in an interview Friday, said the contentious White House exchange between Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance was unfortunate.
'That's something that needs to happen in a back room,' Brewer said of the heated debate before cameras.
That exchange, the senator said, helped boost Zelenskyy's popularity ratings, but has put America in 'a different light' across Europe and in Ukraine. During his past visits, Brewer said that when people saw the United States flag on his shoulder, they would come up and express thanks and provide hugs.
'You were always thought of in a pretty good light as an American…,' he said. 'A good guy, who's always going to be there.'
'We're kind of in a precarious place right now. A lot of Europe is scratching their head and not seeing us as the same ally as they had before.'
Brewer said he hopes his latest visit will help assure the Ukrainians that 'no one is abandoning them.'
'There's a new president in the White House, and they have a little different look at this war,' he added. 'It doesn't change that what they're doing is commendable.'
Despite the suspension of U.S. aid and armaments, Brewer believes that the Ukrainians are 'winning' in some areas, inflicting heavy casualties, while bracing for an offensive from Russia later this month.
The war, he said, is now being fought with low-cost drones and glide bombs that avoid detection because they have no engines to produce a heat signature. Poisonous gases accompany some Russian missiles, Brewer said, and Ukraine has been forced to become more choosy when deploying expensive anti-missile systems.
While the Russian territory captured by Ukraine has largely been reclaimed by Putin's army, it has come at a heavy cost of perhaps 50,000 Russian soldiers lost in the past month, according to Brewer.
'They're losing as many people in a day as we lost in Afghanistan in 20 years,' Brewer said.
Help is coming from Europe, he said. F-16 fighter jets recently arrived from The Netherlands, as have gas masks from Britain, Brewer said. Germany has been asked to provide missiles to replace the American Tomahawks.
If those are provided, it could be a 'game changer,' he said.
Can there be peace? Brewer said he doesn't see it soon, given that Russia is gearing up for a huge offensive push.
But by this fall, if Ukraine can hang on, he said that most observers believe that Russia will have exhausted its military assets, and leaders will be ready to strike a peace deal.
Brewer said he doesn't see any quit in the Ukrainian soldiers he's met at the front, some of whom are 50 years old or older.
'It's all because they grew up in communism, and they know the consequences of giving up,' he said. 'They'd rather die than see their kids and grandkids grow up in that system.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE