Congressman: U.S. should aim for peace in Ukraine, not to humiliate Russia

© AP Photo/ Lauren Victoria Burke

US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

The United States should aim to establish peace in Ukraine and not repeatedly to humiliate Russia, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said on Wednesday.

"Our goal should be to try to have peace in that part of the world [Ukraine], not to try to humiliate Russia again and again and again," Rohrabacher said during US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's hearing in the US Congress on the United States' Ukraine policy.

The Chairman of the US House's Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Subcommittee noted that if the United States' real goal is to defeat and humiliate Russia, the people of Ukraine will continue to "suffer and suffer and suffer."

During the hearing, the US lawmakers also raised the question of the United States providing Ukraine with defensive weapons.

Nuland announced on Wednesday that the United States sanctions team is currently in Europe to discuss with European allies imposing additional sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

The United States has been assisting Ukraine with economic and non-lethal military support since the Kiev government began a military operation against independence fighters in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk last April.