Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks about their bill to ban Russian energy imports, Thursday, March 3, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

PARKERSBURG — Banning Russian oil and ramping up energy production here at home — while offering material support to Ukraine so they can fight — are the best ways the U.S. and its allies can hit Vladimir Putin’s war efforts, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said Monday.

Manchin, D-W.Va., spoke during a video press conference Monday with reporters from around the state to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, America’s energy policy and more.

“The bottom line is this, as an American citizen I have never been more concerned for my country and the world as I am today about what Russia is doing,” he said.

​​Manchin’s comments came on the same day Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., and three co-sponsors introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would halt Russian oil and coal imports. It also would take steps — including authorizing the Keystone XL Pipeline — to increase domestic energy production.

“Energy security is national security. Following Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine, it has never been clearer: The U.S. must restore energy independence — now,” McKinley said in a release.

For his part, Manchin talked about remembering the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s and the fear then over what could happen.

“I have never seen this type of an attack on a democratic, freedom loving country as Ukraine that has embraced democracy so well and the freedoms that go with it. and being so savagely attacked,” the senator said. “This is Putin’s war. Make no mistake.”

Manchin said he is not referring to the conflict in Ukraine as “Russia’s War” because he doesn’t think the people in Russia would be in support of it.

He also doesn’t believe Russia’s military was fully briefed and said they thought they were doing a military exercise, not a full-scale invasion.

No one expected the amount of resistance they faced by the Ukrainian people, the senator said.

“The backbone and spine of the Ukrainian people is unbelievable, unbreakable and unrelentable,” Manchin said. “I have never been more inspired by anything than what I have seen from (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine.”

photo by: Photo provided

U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., discusses information during meeting of the West Virginia Hydrogen Hub working group.

Manchin participated in the Zoom call with Zelenskyy and other U.S. lawmakers on Saturday and talked about how impressed he was with Zelenskyy’s commitment to protecting his country and people.

“He knows he is fighting on the right side of history and justice,” Manchin said.

The only thing Zelenskyy asked for was air cover. He was not asking for American pilots or planes, he was interested in the planes in neighboring countries, which were once Communist bloc countries, that he can have access to and that his people already know how to fly to mount an air response.

Manchin said if those planes go to Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO need to replace those planes so those other countries are not left defenseless if Putin decides to attack elsewhere.

“We must do that,” Manchin said, citing the commitment of all NATO countries to a common defense.

As a result, this doesn’t require the commitment of American forces on the ground in Ukraine.

Manchin said he has also called for an oil embargo against Russian oil and anything that would give Putin money to fund “these atrocities on human beings,” including women, children as well as purposely targeting civilians.

“I think we are moving in that direction,” he said. “There is no reason we should not be able to do that.”

Manchin reiterated his desire for domestic energy production to increase, especially in the Appalachian region, to make up for what will not be allowed to come in through sanctions and bans against Russia. He believes that can replace the 650,000 barrels a day being bought in the U.S. from Russia.

“We must ramp up production and show the rest of the world we have the ability to not only be independent and be a superpower in the world, but be able to help our allies,” Manchin said. “We are showing the commitment of the American people that we are not going to support one dollar of revenue that goes to Putin to make this kind of carnage and atrocity on the Ukrainian people. I don’t think that is too much to ask for.”

Manchin was asked about gas prices in the U.S. reaching an average of $4 a gallon. He said inflation was already underway and the war has not helped it, as the embargo has not been fully implemented yet, but prices were going up anyway.

“It has been a perfect storm,” he said, adding he doesn’t know where it will go.

He said the fuel is available in the U.S. to meet a lot of needs, the country just needs to find a way to get it to market. He is calling for the completion of the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia which will put 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day into the market.

“That can be accomplished in eight months,” the senator said. “(The pipeline) is 95% completed.

“That is the quickest thing we can do to put energy into the market and it needs to be done immediately.”

Coal is also available for use. The senator wants to utilize what the U.S. has available.

“Putin has weaponized energy,” Manchin said, adding the country needs to have a response to that and have something just as good or better.

“We do,” he added. “We have God-given energy and the best way to produce it.”

He has talked about increasing production on federal lands and in the Gulf of Mexico by removing restrictions and bans in place and how technological innovations will allow us to do it as cleanly as possible.

There is a fear by some that pursuing fossil fuels will cut back on the innovations to do it more cleanly as well as exploring more renewable energies. Manchin said they can do all that, but they are going to protect and defend the free world.

“Most of the world runs on the horsepower of fossil,” he said. “That is the reality.”

He feels some in his party will not be receptive to that, but hopes the reality of the situation sets in and what needs to be done to meet this challenge.

The senator described Putin as a “thug” making threats and expecting the world to back down. Manchin said they can’t do that or other countries, including many NATO allies, will be next. There are 90,000 troops in Europe, mostly in Germany, and those numbers need to be beefed up and to show the military force NATO has.

“We are the defenders of freedom and people are expecting us to step to the plate,” Manchin said. “I think we will.”