“For several years, the US military has deployed Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia to help defend oil infrastructure against missile and drone attacks. These advanced air and missile defense systems should be re-deployed to bolster the defenses of eastern flank NATO allies like Poland and Romania — or transferred to our Ukrainian partners,” Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy said in a statement on Thursday.

Murphy, who is a member of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, also supported calls to “freeze new military aid to Saudi Arabia,” and called for the suspension of the planned sale of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to Riyadh. The US government had cleared the Saudis to purchase 180 AMRAAM missiles for $650 million last year.

“Policy decisions have consequences, and these steps would right-size [the] relationship with Saudi Arabia and help Ukraine,” the senator argued.

Washington has been urging Riyadh to increase oil production for months, arguing that lower prices would hurt Russia and make it harder for Moscow to finance its military operation in Ukraine. However, the OPEC+ group, which includes Russia, outraged the US last Wednesday by announcing an oil output cut of two million barrels a day starting in November.

The move led by Riyadh, which has been America’s main ally in the Gulf region for decades, was “a real slap in his face,” Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California, told the Guardian newspaper.

Senator Chris Murphy and Rep. Ro Khanna are leading the charge to get advanced anti-air missile systems which the Pentagon has stationed in Saudi Arabia removed and transferred to Ukraine. The systems were sent there over the past several years following an uptick in missile and drone attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebel attacks on Saudi cities and energy infrastructure coming from the south.