US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick visited Ukraine and signed a missile to Putin

Julia Terruso, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 19, 2025

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A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, congressman took his support for Ukraine to the country this past week, visiting soldiers on the front lines, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and signing a missile addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the role the U.S. could play in any peace negotiations remains nebulous.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a longtime defender of Ukraine who was stationed in the country as an FBI agent in 2015, has aimed to show his support without directly rebuking Trump, who had an icy meeting with Zelenskyy in February.

While Trump promised on the campaign trail that on “day one” in office he would end the war Russia started with Ukraine, he has repeatedly criticized Ukraine and blamed the country for the war. And his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Friday that Trump may “move on” from peace talks if there is no progress in the coming days.

“A lot of people talk a big game about supporting Ukraine. I’m here in Kyiv, Ukraine, for one-on-one meetings with President Zelenskyy himself to actually make it happen,” Fitzpatrick wrote on X during his trip.

The physical display of support placed him in stark contrast to Trump, who has often sided with Putin in discussions of the conflict.

Fitzpatrick posted photos and video of himself on the front lines wearing a camouflage bulletproof vest.

He signed an artillery shell “To: Putin From: PA-1 #peacethroughstrength,” saying it was his “profound honor” to deliver a “very personal message to Vladimir Putin ... on behalf of our PA-1 community.”

Fitzpatrick said the only permissible details he could share “are that ‘the message was delivered on target.’”

Fitzpatrick is one of the few Republicans in the House who represents a district that former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the presidential election in November. He previously met with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, condemned Putin, and stood up for Zelenskyy on social media, but the trip brought renewed attention to the conflict in a moment when Trump’s tariffs and other administrative policies have taken center stage in the United States.

“The stakes are global, and the path to peace is through strength, unity, and resolve,” Fitzpatrick wrote on X. “This is about standing tall in the face of tyranny. It’s about American leadership rooted in principle and patriotic common sense.”

Fitzpatrick said in a video posted to X early Saturday that he’d been on the ground in Ukraine on the front lines near the Russian border for several days, first with the country’s National Guard Artillery and then with the Third Assault Brigade, a company that specializes in high-tech drone warfare.

Fitzpatrick said that he could not disclose his location to protect the troops but that the formerly Russian-occupied territory exhibited the type of destruction apparent around the country. He called it the most brutal war zone he’d visited.

“This used to be a rich forest. This is what the Russians do,” he said in the video. “They just level buildings, indiscriminate burning and destruction of civilian areas ... It’s just blunt-force trauma. They overwhelm you with bodies.”

Fitzpatrick encouraged his fellow members of Congress to visit the front lines and commended the Ukrainian soldiers, comparing their fight to the Revolutionary War soldiers fighting for American independence in 1776.

“They are fighting for their freedom against a brutal, oppressing force. And we will always have their backs,” he said.

Fitzpatrick also met with Bridget Brink, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, saying her leadership, “during a pivotal moment in history, has helped to strengthen our alliance and commitment to Ukraine’s freedom.”

Fitzpatrick has often shied away from saying anything, good or bad, about Trump. But as chairman of the House Intelligence CIA Subcommittee, cochair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, and a former FBI agent posted in Europe, his frustration with Trump on the topic of Ukraine has continued to show.

Russian leaders have signaled they have no intention to let up unless there are substantive territorial concessions from Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has said his country will not cede territory to Russia.

Trump in recent days said a deal between the United States and Ukraine to strike a rare earth-minerals agreement would come within a week, but he also took the moment to criticize Zelenskyy.

“I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job,” Trump said. “I’m not a big fan.”

Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine starting Saturday at 6 p.m. and continuing until midnight Easter Sunday.

But Zelenskyy expressed some skepticism without details on how the ceasefire would be monitored or defined, according to the Associated Press.

Zelenskyy said if Russia genuinely observed a full and unconditional ceasefire, Ukraine would mirror that approach.