As two U.S. lawmakers visit Kyiv, the trip’s organizer says he hopes more officials, and weapons, will follow.

BORODIANKA, Ukraine — In a swiftly organized present of help for Ukraine, Senator Steve Daines of Montana and Consultant Victoria Spartz of Indiana traveled on Thursday to Kyiv and websites of rights abuses within the metropolis’s suburbs, turning into the primary American officers to show up for the reason that begin of the warfare.

“Nothing can substitute for really being right here, seeing it first-hand, spending time with the individuals and leaders right here in Ukraine who’ve been horribly affected by this warfare,” Mr. Daines stated in an interview, standing on a heap of rubble from an condominium constructing that had collapsed on its inhabitants within the city of Borodianka.

It was essential, he stated, for American elected officers to point out solidarity.

Mr. Daines and Ms. Spartz, each Republicans, have been invited by the Ukrainian authorities, with simply over a day’s discover. Mr. Daines had damaged off from a go to to Japanese Europe to make the journey. Ms. Spartz, who final yr turned the primary Ukrainian-born lawmaker to serve in Congress, had deliberate an unofficial go to to Ukraine and later joined Mr. Daines for the journey supported by the Ukrainian authorities.

As soon as in Kyiv, the place they arrived by prepare from western Ukraine, the pair traveled by automobile escorted by the police on a route via stark scenes of destruction, blown-up Russian tanks and rubble, the place rescuers have been nonetheless trying to find our bodies. The 2 additionally noticed an exhumation from a communal grave in Bucha, a city northwest of Kyiv the place a whole lot of our bodies have been discovered on the streets after Russian forces retreated.

The horror in Bucha — the place some victims’ arms have been sure and a few had been shot within the head, in an indication of extrajudicial killings — has turn into emblematic of the warfare’s toll and a brand new touchstone of rights abuse in wartime in Europe. A number of European delegations have additionally visited the positioning.

The 2 Republican lawmakers arrived because the Biden administration is contemplating sending a high-level official to Kyiv within the days forward as an indication of help, in line with an individual acquainted with the inner discussions.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have each made high-profile visits over the previous month to nations neighboring Ukraine, and different high American officers have made comparable visits, some coming near the border. However no American official had publicly visited Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in late February, and the USA has evacuated all diplomats.

Each Mr. Daines and Ms. Spartz stated they have been urging the USA to return diplomats to Ukraine as some European states have performed now that Kyiv, the capital, is now not below imminent menace of assault by Russia.

“I hope that our go to will encourage extra American officers and leaders to come back, to face with the individuals of Ukraine,” Mr. Daines stated, whereas Ms. Spartz stated it was “essential to point out our help, to point out we care.”

Standing within the rubble of the collapsed constructing, the place Ukrainian officers have stated that not less than 21 individuals died, Mr. Daines discovered a baby’s toy — a picket automobile — and seemed into residences that had been peeled open by the explosion, revealing kitchen cupboards nonetheless hanging on a wall.

In Bucha, the 2 watched the Ukrainian authorities take away three our bodies from the tan clay soil of a churchyard the place a communal grave was being excavated.

Mr. Daines described what he had seen as “indeniable proof of warfare crimes.”

“It’s all over the place,” he stated. “We’ve been driving for miles and miles and miles, seeing loss of life and destruction brought on by Vladimir Putin on this evil invasion.”

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Inside Ministry, stated he had organized the go to within the hope that extra American lawmakers would observe, get a first-hand sense of the stakes within the warfare, and vote to supply extra weapons to Ukraine.

Each Ms. Spartz and Mr. Daines stated they supported bipartisan efforts in Congress to spur the Biden administration to ship weapons to the Ukrainian Military extra swiftly.

“I feel we must be offering the deadly assist that they should win this warfare,” Mr. Daines stated. “The humanitarian disaster won’t finish till the warfare ends. And the warfare won’t finish till the Ukrainians win.”