[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
UKRAINE: CONFRONTING INTERNAL CHALLENGES
AND EXTERNAL
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
APRIL 9, 2014
__________
Printed for the use of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
SENATE
HOUSE
BENJAMIN CARDIN, Maryland,
Chairman
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey,
Co-Chairman
JOSEPH PITTS, Pennsylvania
ROBERT ADERHOLT, Alabama
PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
MICHAEL BURGESS, Texas
ALCEE HASTINGS, Florida
LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER,
New York
MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
UKRAINE: CONFRONTING INTERNAL CHALLENGES AND EXTERNAL
----------
APRIL 9, 2014
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 1
Hon. Michael Burgess, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 3
Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 4
Hon. Sheldon Whitehouse, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 5
Hon. John Boozman, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 15
WITNESS
Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian
Affairs, U.S. Department of State.............................. 6
APPENDICES
Prepared Statement of Hon. Benjamin Cardin....................... 27
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith..................... 29
Prepared Statement of Victoria Nuland............................ 30
Prepared Statement of Oleksandr Motsyk........................... 32
UKRAINE: CONFRONTING INTERNAL CHALLENGES AND EXTERNAL
----------
APRIL 9, 2014
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was held from 10:09 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. in Room
215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., Senator
Benjamin Cardin, Chairman of the Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, presiding.
Commissioners present: Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Sheldon
Whitehouse, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe; Hon. John Boozman, Commissioner,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Michael
Burgess, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe; and Hon. Steve Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Witnesses present: Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary for
European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
HON. BENJAMIN CARDIN, CHAIRMAN,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cardin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this
hearing of the Helsinki Commission. I particularly want to
thank Secretary Nuland for her presence here today and for her
extraordinary service to our country during an extremely
challenging time. We've had the opportunity to talk on several
occasions, but I particularly appreciate this opportunity
within the forum of the Helsinki Commission to be able to have
this discussion about the circumstances in Ukraine.
I also want to acknowledge Ambassador Motsyk, the
ambassador from Ukraine, who is here. We appreciate very much
his presence. I also want to acknowledge Spencer Oliver, who is
the secretary general of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, who
is with us today also. We have a distinguished group of people
that are in the audience, along with Congressmen Burgess and
Cohen. It's a pleasure to welcome you all here today. I look
forward to examining the current situation in Ukraine and
discussing how the United States, together with the
international community, including EU and the OSCE, can best
assist Ukraine and deter further Russian aggression.
Since last November, Ukraine has been in turmoil with a
deteriorating economy, public unrest by millions of protesters
fed up with the human rights and democracy rollback and the
massive corruption characterized by the four-year rule of
Viktor Yanukovych. The largely peaceful protests culminated in
a violent crackdown resulting in the killing of more than 80
people in a span of three days.
This in turn led to Yanukovych's removal by a sizable
majority in parliament on February 22nd. Since then an interim
government has been working at a rapid pace to address the
numerous internal challenges moving forward on badly needed
economic and political reforms and preparing for the critical
May 25th presidential elections. I might say that I know that
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and ODIHR will be participating
in election monitoring. We will have a delegation from the
commission, which will also be in Ukraine for the May 25th
elections.
As if these internal challenges weren't enough, a few days
into the interim government's tenure Russia seized Crimea by
force. Russia held an illegal referendum and annexed the
peninsula. Russia's illegal actions violated numerous
international obligations, including the core principles of the
Helsinki Final Act. The land grab, cloaked in the cloth of
self-determination, brings to mind darker times in Europe's
history, undermines the international order, and sets a
dangerous precedent. We saw Russia take similar action in
Georgia and now in Crimea, in Ukraine.
If this goes unchecked, and if we do not speak with a
unified voice, it encourages more irresponsible action by
Russia and other countries around the world that might be so
inclined. Meanwhile Russia continues to threaten Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity with formal military
intervention and attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the
new government, including through a propaganda campaign where
truth is a casualty.
In the last few days, Russian agents have fomented protests
in several eastern cities in an attempt to destabilize Ukraine
and make it more amenable to Russia's influence, yet these
efforts do not appear to be finding fertile ground. Secretary
Nuland, as I'm sure you're aware, Secretary Kerry testified
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday and was
pretty candid about the efforts that Russia has been doing,
particularly in the eastern part of Ukraine, to try to provoke
action and unrest, and this obviously needs to be brought
forward.
It is clear that Ukrainians want to live in a united
Ukraine. Even among the ethnic Russians there have been no
cries of discrimination. It is clear that the people of Ukraine
long for the rule of law, transparency, democracy and respect
for human rights. They want to be afforded the dignity and
respect that all human beings desire and deserve. The May 25th
elections will be vital to understanding the aspirations of the
people of Ukraine and the course they want to chart for their
future. A free and democratic electoral process is a powerful
response to Russia's perceptions and Russia's aggression.
Given what is at stake, it is so important for the
administration, the Congress and the international community to
respond, and I believe it's absolutely essential that we speak
with a strong, united voice and standing with the people of
Ukraine. I particularly want to note the vital work of the OSCE
and its various institutions which have been actively engaged
in sending monitoring missions and representatives to help
foster security and respect for human rights. The OSCE has
deployed a large special monitoring mission in Ukraine. I hope
that Russia will not prohibit this mission as well as other
smaller OSCE missions from entering Crimea.
I'm especially grateful that the Senate and the House, on
an overwhelming bipartisan basis, were able to send to the
president, for his signature, legislation underscoring our
country's solidarity with the Ukrainian people, with tangible
economic democracy and security assistance. The legislation
also sanctions Ukrainians and Russians responsible for
undermining Ukrainian sovereignty and massive corruption. Let
me just point out that the sanctions that were employed by the
administration patterned very much the sanctions that were made
available that resulted in the Magnitksy Act, which was Russia-
specific in regards to the human rights violations in Russia.
It is very comparable to that type of sanctions. As we
originally suggested, and as legislation has now been authored
by Senator McCain and myself, we want to make that legislation
available globally so that we don't have to respond to Congress
every time there's a human rights violation, and working with
the administration trying to see whether we can't get the
authorizing language that will allow the administration to be
able to move more promptly if circumstances require.
It basically underscores the three principles of the
Helsinki Final Act, and that is that if we're going to have a
stable partner, if we're going to have a country that is going
to be able to proceed on an economic and security front, it
must respect the rule of law, good governance and human rights.
We must continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as they
defend their democracy, integrity and independence. We must,
ourselves, defend the Helsinki principles and other
international principles which Russia so blatantly violated.
I also noticed that we've been joined by Senator
Whitehouse, and acknowledge his presence. I would yield to any
of my colleagues who would like to make brief opening comments.
Congressman Burgess.
HON. MICHAEL BURGESS, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Burgess. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do want to thank
you for holding the hearing. I'll keep my comments brief
because we are anxious to hear from the assistant secretary.
And thank you, Madam Secretary, for being with us this morning.
And thank you, Chairman, for your willingness to travel to
Ukraine during the time that the voting occurs. I am anxious to
be present when that happens and look forward to that day for
the people of a free Ukraine.
It's been an incredible couple of months, and some
extraordinary events have occurred in Ukraine and the Crimea.
February 21st, pro-European protesters legally marched in the
streets of Kiev to demand reform from their government. The
protesters won, and Yanukovych, who was president at the time,
left the country. We all know what happens next. Russia
immediately condemned the new Ukrainian government as
illegitimate. Then, under the guise of liberating the Russian-
speaking peoples of the Crimea, Russia invaded and annexed a
piece of a sovereign nation.
The Russian activity must not be unchallenged. Yesterday
armed protesters swarmed a city 300 miles to the north of
Crimea. Ukraine and U.S. officials alleged that the protesters
were in fact organized by Russia. The protesters themselves
then called upon President Putin to send in troops for their
aid. In fact, this cannot stand. Doing its part, the United
States Congress has acted. We passed a billion-dollar loan
guarantee to the Ukraine. Further, Congress has passed separate
legislation that requires President Obama to ban visas and
seize assets from the people responsible for undermining the
peace and stability of the Ukraine.
There is today, over in another committee of which I'm a
member on the House side, a provision to allow the expedited
handling of export licenses for liquefied natural gas. These
are licenses that inexplicably have been held up for some time,
and it is clear that natural gas exports to a country like
Ukraine could be a significant weapon in the--in the fight
against Russian aggression.
Four years ago, Secretary of State Clinton said we must hit
the reset button on our relationship with President Putin. That
sent a confused message to the rest of the world. It implied
that the United States, which has always stood firm for freedom
and democracy, is willing to work diplomatically with President
Putin. In fact, we all know he is not to be trusted. He is
still fighting the Cold War, even if we are not. He's denying
basic freedoms to the people of Russia.
I thank the chairman and I look forward to hearing the
comments by the witness as to the current situation in the
Ukraine and what we can do to further deter Russian hostility
and aggression. I yield back.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you. Congressman Cohen.
HON. STEVE COHEN, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm looking forward to your testimony. This, I think, is a
most critical issue to the world and to America. I'd hope in
your testimony--and I haven't had a chance to read it--that you
will comment on some of the criticisms that some have launched
about our $100 billion aid, about some of that aid possibly
going to benefit debts that are owed to Russia and if there's
any reality to it or anything can be done about that aid to see
that it does help the economy directly rather than simply by
paying off debts owed to maybe the Russian energy company, or
if that's inevitable; comments about--that have been made that
the individuals who have taken power in the Ukraine are, quote,
unquote, ``neo-Nazis'' and fascists, et cetera--if there's any
extremist elements that we know about or if this is simply
propaganda on folks that don't want us to get involved.
I'm curious about what's going on in the Caucasus. If I was
a terrorist in the Caucasus right now in Dagestan or Chechnya,
I'd be doing something because I would think that Russia's
attention is turned toward Ukraine. Are there any indications
we have any action taking place there, where it seems like an
ideal opportunity to disrupt the Russian efforts? I yield back
the balance of my time. I look forward to your testimony.
Mr. Cardin. Senator Whitehouse.
HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Whitehouse. Thank you very much, Chairman, for holding
this. And I thank our witness for being here, and I appreciate
the energetic nature of her diplomacy in this area. I think
it's been helpful to our country.
I don't want to ask the questions now--we can take it up
later--but I wanted to flag two issues that I think bear on the
situation in the Ukraine. The first is that when we were there
recently we heard considerable concern from our Ukrainian
interlocutors about the threat of corruption in Ukraine and
about the extent to which confidence in any new government
could be eroded if it weren't clear to the people of the
Ukraine that a serious effort at undoing the corruption--
primary supporting theoligarchs but more generally the previous
Ukrainian government is not dealt with.
I'm not familiar with what the Department of Justice is
doing by way of providing support, mentorship, guidance,
resources and so forth to the prosecutors and to the judiciary
in the Ukraine. There is skepticism, I think, that prosecutors
will have the freedom to do what they should be doing, that
investigators will be free to pursue this, that judges will be
able to render legitimate decisions--that we have been active
in other countries, helping them to, for want of a better word,
reboot the justice system insofar as it pertains to corruption.
I'd love to know what the role is and how DOJ is participating
in our combined government efforts to try to support a new
government in the Ukraine in that regard.
The second is following on Congressman Burgess' observation
that much of the power of Russia in this area has to do with
its status as a petro state and has to do with the political
threat that the denial of fuel or the aggressive and strategic
pricing of fuel provides the Russians. There has been
considerable discussion about the role of American natural gas
exports to help with that problem. I would submit that there
probably is also ground to be gained in that regard by helping
support a Ukrainian transition to a stronger renewable
footprint, and that it could well be seen that every patriotic
Ukrainian should have a solar panel or, if they have enough
land the grid for it, a wind turbine. Yet I'm unaware of any
connection between our Department of Energy and the Ukraine. I
don't know whether there's any effort being made to facilitate
the renewable side in addition to considering natural gas
exports. I think those are two important concerns. If we can't
get after the corruption, if we can't reduce the Russian
political weight associated with its petro-state status, a lot
of these other goals that we want to achieve will be made more
difficult.
I'll pursue that during the Q-and-A period, but I do salute
our witness for the energetic effort she has brought to this
and appreciate her service.
Mr. Cardin. Secretary Nuland, thank you for being here.
Secretary Nuland assumed her position as assistant secretary of
state for European and Eurasian Affairs on September 18th,
2013. As assistant secretary, she is responsible for the
diplomatic relations with 50 countries in Europe and Eurasia,
as well as NATO, the European Union and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe--quite a portfolio that you
have.
Secretary Nuland is a career diplomat. She was the 18th
U.S. permanent representative to NATO from 2005 to 2008. As
NATO ambassador, she focused heavily on strengthening the
allied support for the ISAF mission in Afghanistan and on NATO-
Russia issues. She is an expert. She plays a central role in
forging and implementing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, Russia
and the region during these extraordinary, challenging times.
I want to note, on a personal basis, her extraordinary
leadership is well-known. As we talk to more of our colleagues
around the region, they respect greatly the strength that
Secretary Nuland has brought to this position. It's a pleasure
to have you here. As you see, our colleagues have a lot of
questions. You may proceed as you wish. Your full statement
will be incorporated in our record. And we look forward to your
testimony.
VICTORIA NULAND, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN
AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ms. Nuland. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
members of this commission. I'll proceed with the prepared
statement, and then we can go to many of these very rich
questions that you all have raised in the opening statements.
Again, it is my honor to be invited to testify before you today
on the situation in Ukraine. It's a particular honor to do so
before the U.S. Helsinki Commission, an organization that I
have long personally valued and had lots of exchanged with over
the years.
Let me also express my gratitude and the administration's
gratitude for the leadership that Congress has shown with the
overwhelming passage of H.R. 4151 and S. 2183 in support of
Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. That unity sent a strong,
bipartisan signal that the United States stands united for
Ukraine at this critical moment in its history.
For almost 40 years, the United States and this commission
have worked with our trans-Atlantic allies and partners to
uphold the principles of the Helsinki Final Act. Russia's
actions in Ukraine are an affront to those fundamental
principles. Its occupation of Crimea, rubber-stamped by an
illegitimate referendum conducted at the barrel of a gun, have
tarnished its credibility and diminished its international
standing in the eyes of Ukrainians and in the eyes of the
world.
Reports of human rights abuses in Crimea since the Russian
occupation have also shocked the conscience. Russia has also
attempted to intimidate Ukrainians by amassing more than 40,000
troops and quick-strike aircraft along its borders, and with
trade blockades and gas price hikes, as mentioned by some of
you. This week's violent occupation of government buildings in
Kharkiv, in Donetsk and in Lugansk deepen our concern.
Far from a spontaneous set of events, as Secretary Kerry
said yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
these incidents bear all the hallmarks of an orchestrated
campaign of incitement, separatism and sabotage of the
Ukrainian state, aided and abetted by the Russian security
services. Today, Ukraine is a front-line state for the struggle
for freedom and all the principles that this commission holds
dear. The United States stands with Ukraine in its effort to
forge its own path forward to a more free, peaceful and unified
future.
Our approach includes four pillars with which you're very
familiar. First, our bilateral and multilateral support for
Ukraine and its democratic future, second the costs we're
imposing on Russia for its aggressive actions, third our
efforts to de-escalate the crisis diplomatically if at all
possible and, fourth, our unwavering commitment to the security
of our NATO allies. I'll address each of these briefly. My
longer statement includes more detail.
First, we support the Ukrainian people and the transitional
government in the courageous steps they are taking to restore
economic health, democratic choice and internal stability and
security to the country. The Rada has passed landmark anti-
corruption measures, deficit reduction measures and taken
difficult steps to reform the energy sector. These reforms are
going to require painful sacrifice from the Ukrainian people,
but they will also open the way to an IMF package of up to $18
billion in support.
As you know, the United States stands ready to help as the
country addresses its immense challenges. Again, we thank you
for your support of the $1 billion loan guarantee, which we
will provide in conjunction with IMF and EU assistance. This
loan guarantee will primarily go to help cushion the impact of
reforms for the poorest in the Ukrainian system and the most
vulnerable in their society.
We also have approximately $92 million in FY '13 State and
USAID funding and 86 million dollars in FY '14 State and USAID
funding for other kinds of assistance. This is primarily going
to be directed in the areas of strengthening anti-corruption
and enforcement efforts. To address some of the concerns that
Senator Whitehouse raised: revising public procurement
legislation, again, in an anti-corruption direction;
introducing agricultural and energy sector reforms that are
badly needed, also going to rooting out corruption; improving
transparency; and helping the Ukrainian people prepare for
free, fair elections on May 25th.
Thank you for those of you who've already traveled to
Ukraine and to those of you who will travel for the elections--
it's important to have senior ranking Americans from both the
executive and the legislative branch in Ukraine throughout this
period.
We are also working with the international community to
push back against Russian propaganda, Russian lies and efforts
to destabilize Ukraine's regions. As you mentioned, Mr.
Chairman, the OSCE has already fielded a special monitoring
mission. There are 70 monitors now in place in some 10
locations around Ukraine, including most of the at-risk cities
that we've seen over the weekend.
We expect this mission can grow to up to 500 over the
coming weeks. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and
Humanitarian Rights will also play an essential role. They'll
send some thousand observers for the presidential elections--
one of the highest per-capita fieldings of an ODIHR mission in
recent trans-Atlantic history.
Second, as I said, Russia is already paying a high price
for its actions, and that cost will go up if its pressure on
Ukraine does not abate. Across the board, Russia has found
itself isolated, disinvited and diminished in its interactions
with all of us. The president has signed two executive orders
authorizing sanctions against those responsible and finding
that the actions and policies of the Russian government
undermine democratic processes and institutions, threaten the
peace and stability and security and sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Ukraine, or in the misappropriation of
Ukrainian assets.
These sanctions have been carefully coordinated with the EU
and with our global partners. Today we are considering further
measures in response to Russia's continued pressure on Ukraine.
These costs will only grow if Russia does not change course. At
the same time, the president has insisted on leaving the door
open for diplomacy. We wanted to try to de-escalate this crisis
peacefully, if at all possible. As you know, Secretary Kerry
has met three times with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in
recent weeks, with the full support of the Ukrainian
government, at a time when Russia was refusing to meet directly
with Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Russians agreed that they would
finally sit down over the next 10 days with Ukraine and the EU
and the U.S. to discuss de-escalation, demobilization, support
for the elections and constitutional reform. I have to say that
we don't have high expectations for these talks, but we do
believe it is very important to keep that diplomatic door open.
We'll see what they bring.
Even as we try to de-escalate, with Russian troops ringing
Ukraine for weeks now on high alert, we cannot be complacent
about the security of our NATO allies who live closest to
Russia. Our message to Putin and to Russia is clear: NATO
territory is inviolable. We, and our NATO allies, are providing
visible reassurance on land, on sea and in the air to our
Central and Eastern European members, who now also live on the
front lines of this conflict.
More broadly, the events in Ukraine are a wake-up call for
all of us. Everything we have stood for, for over 40 years, as
a community of free nations is at risk if we allow aggressive
acts to go unchecked and unpunished. As a community, North
Americans and Europeans, must continue to stand with the people
of Ukraine as they say no, or nie in Ukrainian, to the tactics
and brutality of the 19th century on display now and yes, or in
Ukrainian, to a 21st century future that respects their
sovereignty, their choice and their human dignity.
Thank you for allowing me to be with you today.
Mr. Cardin. Once again, thank you for your testimony. There
is a scheduled vote on the floor of the Senate at 11:00. We'll
probably do, if necessary, more than one round, but if we could
try to keep the rounds to five minutes.
Mr. Whitehouse. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I have to leave
very shortly with a meeting with my EPW chairman.
Mr. Cardin. I'll yield my time.
Mr. Whitehouse. DOJ, DOE.
Ms. Nuland. First of all, Senator, I should let those
agencies speak for themselves. But I will, since we work very
closely, say to you that the Department of Justice has had a
field team in Ukraine for at least three weeks now. They are
working on all the issues of interest to you. They have been
assisting the Ukrainians, and particularly the Rata, with some
of the efforts that they've been making to reboot the justice
system, as you say, by cleaning out some of the corrupt members
of the judiciary, by working on legislation that would provide
more transparency and more accountability in the justice
sector.
As you probably know as part of the IMF conditionality, and
I cited it quickly in my testimony, the Rata is working on a
whole series of transparency and anti-corruption legislation in
things like government procurement in the different sectors--
grain, energy, et cetera--to provide openness and reduce graft
in contracting. DOJ's been advising on that. But equally
importantly they've had a team that's been working on helping
the Ukrainians exploit this treasury trove of Yanukovych-era
documents that have come forward so that they can make judicial
cases against corrupt officials, both in Ukrainian courts and
in international courts.
We're also advising the Ukrainians through the Department
of Justice. Out there on some of the cases that they plan to
take to international bodies--like the ICC, like the ICJ, and
in the WTO--against some of the Russian pressures, the stealing
of the assets of the Ukrainian Navy, et cetera. So watch this
space.
On the energy side, Carlos Pascual, the State Department's
senior coordinator for energy, has been in Ukraine recently.
The secretary had a meeting with the EU, Cathy Ashton and the
Energy Commissioner Oettinger, last week to try to support the
Ukrainians in defending themselves should there be a gas cut
off, primarily by working on reverse flows of gas from
Slovakia, from Hungary, from Poland, accelerating U.S. and EU
support for the adjustments that need to be made there. Those
efforts continue. We are encouraging Secretary Moniz and Dan
Poneman, his deputy, to go out and work in Ukraine.
As you may know, there is major U.S. energy investment in
Ukraine, primarily in the shale gas exploration field. This has
the potential to make Ukraine completely energy independent in
the span of some eight to 12 years, depending upon how it goes.
We are also encouraging them in the direction of energy
conservation--that's a really very serious issue; if you've
ever been to--Ukrainian public buildings with the windows open
in the middle of the winter, you know what I'm talking about--
and also on renewables. But as you know, with renewables, it's
expensive, it's a longer-term game, but there are lots of
young, Ukrainian high-tech companies interested in getting into
that sector.
Mr. Whitehouse. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Nuland.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you. Congressman Burgess.
Mr. Burgess. Please go ahead, sir.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you. Well, thank you. I want to bring up
an issue that was present before Russia's invasion in Ukraine,
and that is the legislation that was passed, known as the
Magnitsky law, required the administration to evaluate who in
Russia was responsible for these gross violations of human
rights and to take action, including visa bans and sanctions on
our banking system. The list that came out before the Ukrainian
crisis erupted, before the Olympics was--by many of us--we
thought incomplete. We have, under the laws, notified the
administration that we thought additional reviews should be
made, particularly of certain individuals. Can you just give me
the status of that review?
Ms. Nuland. Chairman, thank you. As you mentioned, we put
forward our annual report in December, but did not at that time
add more names. We are in receipt of your request for more
review, which sets in motion a 120 day clock, which I believe
comes forward to us end of April, middle of May. We do expect
to be able to respond within the timeframe that the legislation
sets and we are reviewing now the question of adding more
names.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you, and we'll look forward to that
response.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the OSCE and its
importance. It is the largest regional organization. It is an
organization that includes both the United States and Russia,
which gives it particular importance. Now that the G-8 is G-7,
at least temporarily, the OSCE provides us one of the only
regional forums that we can have direct contact with Russia. It
is difficult right now, because Russia is in violation of so
many of its responsibilities under the OSCE. We now have
missions from the OSCE in Ukraine. Can you just tell us what we
can do to help ensure that the missions are able to get the
type of access and support that they need in order for us to
have independent observers and help, we hope, to develop the
type of democratic tools necessary to resist open violence in
that area?
Ms. Nuland. Well, Chairman, in all my years of working with
the OSCE, and it's been decades, as it has for you, I have
never seen a more active period at the headquarters in Vienna
than we have now, because the need is so great and because the
OSCE has so many of the tools that are required. That said, it
was quite a struggle to get agreement on the Special Monitoring
Mission. We would have liked it about a month earlier than it
came forward. But we do now have agreement to a mission that
can grow to up to 500 people. We have about 70 in the field
now, including in the key cities. We've had considerable
reporting coming forward, including reporting that very much
validates our understanding of the situation in Kharkov and
Donetsk and Lugansk--which was that it was relatively peaceful
with some relatively small, but peaceful, pro-Russian protests
on Saturday, on Sunday--until this very surgical and
orchestrated campaign of building takeovers that happened, over
the last couple of days. Since then, monitors coming forward
with reporting that the rest of the cities are relatively calm,
that citizens in these cities are distancing themselves from
the position of these extremists and these aggressive actors
and are expressing their desire to vote in free, fair elections
on May 25th.
I think we need, to accelerate the pace of getting the
monitors out there, filling out this mission. Obviously, it
takes money. I am scraping my budget now to fund as many
American monitors as we can. We're also talking to the OSCE
about insuring--currently their reporting is confidential
within the organization. The first reporting we've had has been
very rich. We're asking them to do what they can to publicize
more of it, either by sanitizing reporting and putting it up on
their website on a regular schedule, or by giving regular press
conferences, and I think hearing from you all on that would be
helpful.
Final issue on the special monitoring mission: It has a
mandate not simply to passively monitor, but also to offer good
offices to facilitate de-escalation of crisis situation. Over
the last couple of days, we've been raising the question in
Vienna whether the monitors in Donetsk, the monitors in Lugansk
can offer a more active role and good offices in trying to get
these last two buildings that are being held cleared,
particularly the one on Lugansk, where there are hostages still
at risk. We'd like to see the mandate used to the maximum.
We also talked about the absolutely vital role that ODIHR
will play in monitoring the elections. This is absolutely key
for undercutting this narrative that somehow the Ukrainian
people will not have a broad choice. As you know, there are
more than 20 candidates in the race, representing every single
color of Ukraine. We expect the media environment for this to
be as free as it's ever been. But it'll be important to
document that and important to have monitors in every single
part of the country.
Finally, the human rights monitors from the OSCE were some
of the only people--and the monitors for journalistic freedom--
were some of the only people to get into Crimea, both during
the occupation and afterwards, and the witness that they have
borne to the increasingly tense human rights situation in
Crimea has been important. But we're frustrated that more of
this information is not getting into the public domain.
Mr. Cardin. The Yanukovych administration left Ukraine in a
pretty bad situation. The economy was in desperate situation.
The political institutions were severely damaged, and the
parliament acted with some division. They are clearly united in
regards to the independence of Ukraine and the actions of
Russia, but it's not a predictable circumstance. The May 25th
elections are critically important, and they're only weeks
away. How well-prepared will the Ukrainians be for a open, free
and fair election on May 25th?
Ms. Nuland. Chairman, this is an issue that we are watching
intently. This is why we are gratified to have such a large
ODIHR presence. We also expect that we will have a large IRI
and NDI contingent out there and also from the commission.
In terms of the fundamentals of free, fair conditions, a
broad slate of candidates, open media environment, electoral
roles that are up-to-date--my understanding is that the
conditions are all in relatively good shape along those lines.
I think our number one concern is the concern that you also
have: That there will be efforts to--further efforts to
destabilize the security situation, that that is part of the
playbook here: to make it difficult to have elections, or to
claim that the environment is too unstable for elections.
This is why we are gratified to see the very restrained and
careful efforts that the Ukrainian security services have been
making to deal with the occupation of the buildings in these
eastern cities. They've now, through a combination of
negotiation and very surgical police action, cleared the two
buildings in Kharkov. They've cleared one of the buildings in
Donetsk, and they're working on the last two. This, again,
gives confidence to the Ukrainian people in those cities that
their public institutions serve them and serve them with
professionalism and credibility.
Mr. Cardin. Let me also point out: ODIHR works very closely
with the Parliamentary Assembly. I think we have resolved some
of our earlier conflicts we expect a large number of
parliamentarians--maybe a record number of parliamentarians--
that will be participating in the observation of the elections.
We now have frozen conflicts in Georgia, in Azerbaijan,
Moldova--will Ukraine outlook be one in which it's going to be
a long-term area of disagreement before we can get this
resolved, or is there any hope that this will not become
another frozen conflict?
Ms. Nuland. Chairman, first and foremost, we are focused
intently on supporting the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian
transitional government, and we will support the elected
authorities after the elections in ensuring that the rest of
Ukraine is as successful as possible in improving the economy,
the political environment, security, and stability.
With regard to Crimea, I think we all have to be honest
with ourselves that this is going to be a medium-term effort,
and here again, the more successful Ukraine is, the more
Ukraine begins to resemble Poland, rather than resembling
Russia over time, the more the people of Crimea will have to
ask themselves whether they made the right bet, either with
their vote, or otherwise.
I think that the best antidote to this kind of separatism
is to bring these countries--whether it is Ukraine, whether it
is Moldova, whether it is Georgia--closer to their successful
neighbors in Europe. The EU has offered to sign association
agreements with Moldova and Georgia. They've extended a lot of
the benefits of the Association Agreement in the Deep and
Comprehensive Free Trade agreement to Ukraine already. In
Georgia and Moldova, this offers the opportunity, conceivably
as early as June, July, for citizens carrying Moldovan
passports to travel visa-free to Europe, to have business
exchanges with the lowest-possible, or no tariffs to Europe.
That's going to be true not just for those living in Chinau--
it's going to be true for those living in Tiraspol.
This opportunity, as a Moldovan, to integrate with Europe,
and to be freer and more prosperous through that opportunity,
we think is the greatest antidote to separatism, whether it's
there or whether it's in Apozee or ultimately in Crimea. But
it's going to be a medium-term game.
Mr. Cardin. One last follow-up question in regards to
Moldova. There have been released reports that there is some
nervousness that Russia might in fact pull its troops into
Moldova under, again, the guise of protecting the Russian
ethnic community. Can you just give us a quick update as to our
concerns as to Moldova and Russia's actions on that border?
Ms. Nuland. Chairman, as you know, I was in Moldova a week
ago Sunday, reassuring that--Moldovan government and people of
U.S. support for their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and
for their chosen path of deeper association with Europe. There
was considerable concern that in a scenario where Russia chose
to bring its troops that are now ringing the Ukrainian border
into Ukraine proper, that they would also use their bases in
Transnistria to come into Ukraine on the western side and make
a connection between Transnistria and Odessa. That puts a
premium on trying to deter that kind of decision by Russia and
to continue to make the case to the people of Transnistria that
there are good things coming for Moldova in the coming weeks
and months as a result of its association with Europe, which
will pay economic benefits and free-choice benefits for their
people too, and that they should resist these efforts to use
them as a pawn in this game.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you. We've been joined also by Senator
Boozman--it's nice to have you here. Congressman Burgess.
Mr. Burgess. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Again, Madam Secretary,
I want to thank you for spending time with us this morning and
sharing your considerable knowledge and expertise in this area
with the commission. I want to ask a question about just prior
to the annexation, or the takeover, of Crimea. There was a
story that broke in the newspapers about a hospital where the
hospital administrator had been instructed that the hospital
was now being managed by, presumably, the Russians. That got my
attention, because why would Russia be taking over a hospital
if they were not expecting multiple or maybe a mass casualty
situation? After the event occurred, then there was a follow-up
story where the hospital administrator had now been detained by
the Russians. I'm a physician by background--there's plenty of
times I want to see a hospital administrator detained--but can
you shed any light on that as to what happened to that hospital
administrator?
Ms. Nuland. I'm not familiar with this incident. We will
look into it for you. But certainly the story that you recount
is consistent with human rights violations and intimidation and
other tactics that have been widely reported, including by OSCE
human right monitors and by others and by the Crimeans
themselves since the Russian pressure began, but particularly
since the occupation--human rights abuses against Tatars,
against journalists, against Ukrainian Navy personnel who
resisted. We're talking about arrests, we're talking about
reports of secret torture facilities, and we're talking about
appropriation of property, intimidation of families. It is
significant. It is pervasive.
Secretary Kerry, in his meetings with Foreign Minister
Lavrov, has expressed our concerns about this at every stage
and, in the most recent meeting, handed over a list of cases of
concern that was coordinated with the government of Ukraine.
Mr. Burgess. Well, if you could follow up with us on that,
I would be grateful.
Ms. Nuland. We will.
Mr. Burgess. I was happy to hear your affirmation of the
NATO commitment. Can you tell us, as far as the Budapest
memorandum was concerned, is there any like requirement that
any of the people who were involved in the crafting of that
memoranda provide any assistance or lack of aggression toward
Ukraine?
Ms. Nuland. In terms of the individuals who were
negotiators of the agreement?
Mr. Burgess. Right. We asked them to disarm. I remember
Secretary Rice when she was national security adviser, actually
coming to Congress and talking about if a country wanted to
disarm, we know what it looks like.
Ms. Nuland. Right.
Mr. Burgess. We know what Ukraine did.
Ms. Nuland. Yes.
Mr. Burgess. Does that carry any weight, the fact that
Ukraine was so cooperative?
Ms. Nuland. I was on the negotiating team in the Clinton
administration that--led by Strobe Talbott, that worked on the
denuclearization of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus at the time,
and worked on this security assurance document, the 1994
Budapest agreement. The idea here was that for a Ukraine that
had voluntarily surrendered its nuclear weapons, it required
political assurances from its neighbor, Russia, and from two
other large NATO powers, the U.K. and the U.S., that it would
not be subject to attack as a result.
That was a political reassurance; it was not a sovereign
treaty obligation of the level of what we have with our NATO
allies, what we have with Japan, Korea. But it was primarily
designed to give Ukraine reassurance vis-a-vis Russia. We
consider that that commitment has been more than violated by
Russia. We supported the Ukrainian call for consultations under
Budapest. We endeavored to have those consultations within days
of the Crimean crisis, and the Russians declined to
participate.
It is regrettable that this political commitment proved not
to be worth much more than the paper that it was written on. I
think it does speak to whether broader international assurances
should be given to other such states in the future.
Mr. Burgess. May I ask a follow-up question, then, as far
as, for example, the missile defense in Poland, the interceptor
program in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, that was brought back to
some degree. Perhaps we should rethink the activities
surrounding that.
Ms. Nuland. These systems were never designed with Russia
as a target. These are systems that are designed to deal with
ballistic missile and nuclear threats and WMD threats coming
from the south of Europe. They are not constituted for that
mission.
Mr. Burgess. Correct.
Ms. Nuland. There is a question of Russian nuclear
aggression is deterred by the NATO nuclear posture, which
remains in place.
Mr. Burgess. But while these were designed for protection
from a country such as Iran, there was considerable concern on
the part of Vladimir Putin that we had participated in the
missile defense of Poland, if we know it is something that has
concerned the Russian hierarchy before, maybe it's worthwhile
re-exploring that.
Let me add one other thing, and this is on the question of
energy, and Senator Whitehouse did bring that up. Again, we're
marking up a bill right now in the Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Energy that would expedite the export licenses.
It still takes a long time, even for those companies that have
already done their environmental studies, that are awaiting the
approval of these licenses. It's still a year and a half before
gas can be shipped. It does take a long time. Are you
encouraging the Department of Energy to really be active in
looking at these licenses, these export licenses?
Ms. Nuland. I don't want to get into a brother/sister
agency's business too deeply. That obviously is their business
and their relationship with you.
The Europeans have been clear that they appreciate the
licensing that has already been done, that they are hopeful
that in the context of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership negotiations, the TTIP negotiations for a broad
trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU, that this could be
included, which would put them in a preferential category for
licensing. What we are doing is very aggressively encouraging
the building of LNG terminals, the building of pipelines and
interconnectors, the reverse flow of gas, as we've talked
about, to invigorate the energy market within Europe, which
will bring prices down and create more options for these
countries, not just outside of NATO space, but those allies who
are at risk from total monopoly from one source of energy. So
we are very active. We have been releasing the Department of
Energy has, considerable amounts more of LNG. The president
spoke about this when he was in Europe. I understand the
department is in dialogue with all of you about what makes
sense going forward.
Mr. Burgess. Sure. Well, as a Texan, we don't ever want to
see our Ukrainian friends want for natural gas.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll yield back.
Mr. Cardin. I want to thank Congressman Cohen. He's yielded
to allow Senator Boozman an opportunity to ask questions since
there will be a pending vote. During that vote, I will leave
and let Congressman Cohen have the gavel and question, and I
will be back shortly. So Senator Boozman.
HON. JOHN BOOZMAN, COMMISSIONER,
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
yielding for a second. We appreciate you being here, appreciate
your hard work.
I'd really like for you to comment. Right now OECD, the
ambassadorship is vacant. Can you talk a little bit about, as a
former NATO ambassador and sometimes we don't realize the
importance that that agency has in Europe and how important it
is to have somebody around the table, as you talk about Ukraine
and the other issues that are facing Europe right now and our
allies. Can you talk a little bit about the importance,
perhaps, of getting that position filled?
Ms. Nuland. Thank you, Senator. We are as an administration
eager to have every one of these ambassadorships filled. I've
got some 10 still vacant in my area of responsibility. OECD is
one of the few missions resident in Europe that I am not
responsible for, but obviously can speak to the fact that it
plays an absolutely vital role in providing those kinds of
essential connections, economic connections, cultural and human
rights connections, across its memberships. Having a strong
leader there is absolutely essential.
As you may know, Russia has sought a closer relationship.
We had been trying to support that and help it, but now we've
had to make very strong decisions, along with our European
partners, that that closer integration is not in keeping with
the behavior that we're seeing now. These are the kinds of
political calls that we're now having to make out there, which
speak to having strong leadership.
Mr. Boozman. No, I agree totally. I think it is important
that we have representation at the table that can, you know,
speak with a strong voice.
Tell me also about the NATO Parliament and things. As an
old NATO ambassador--how important it is for the Americans to
be represented there and to be a strong voice.
Ms. Nuland. Thank you for that softball, Senator. I am a
strong and enthusiastic supporter of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly, having worked very closely with them during my two
tours at NATO, both as deputy and as ambassador. It's
particularly a strong organization when the American contingent
is bipartisan, is broadly geographically representative and is
committed both at home and in Europe to a good conversation. I
remember, for example, when I was out there and we were first
working on missile defenses in Europe, and the fact that
although Republicans and Democrats had some differences as to
what the appropriate system would look like, the fact that both
Republicans and Democrats thought we needed missile defenses in
Europe had a profound impact on our ability to get that done in
individual nations. The fact that they could talk to their
counterparts in nations who were responsible for national
budgeting, who were responsible for these kinds of policy
decisions was absolutely key.
Today I would say that speaks to two absolutely vital
things. One is the importance of all allies participating in
the reassurance mission on land, sea and air for our frontline
allies in Eastern and Central Europe, and that this not just be
an American or big allied effort. That requires
parliamentarians to make budget decisions sometimes that are
difficult, and more broadly to maintain strong budgets.
Increasingly we see that if we want to be strong in defense
of our values and in defense of our security, we've also got to
continue to grow, and that means that everything is connected
to everything in the European theater. The strong steps that
individual parliamentarians take to support growth and jobs in
their economies, to support banking union and other kinds of
strengthening of the Eurozone is directly connected to whether
they can raise defense budgets, provide reassurance; whether
they can work together to withstand what we have to do to
sanction Russia. All of these things are connected.
Mr. Boozman. Right. No, I appreciate that. We've got really
significant problems going on, but one of the basics for
solving those problems is the dialogue the communication.
Ms. Nuland. Yes.
Mr. Boozman. I was very active on the House side in NATO
and now trying to get Senate participation, which I think is
really important, in the NATO parliament. You mentioned the
bipartisanship. Probably that's one of the most nonpartisan
things that I've ever been a part of in the sense that, when
you get over there and you roll up the sleeves and start
working together, it really--I can't remember a time in any of
those meetings where there was a real rift as far as important
policy.
We appreciate your leadership, and I've got to go vote.
Thank you.
Ms. Nuland. Thank you. Thanks for coming and participating
at NATO.
Mr. Boozman. Thank you.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Senator. And I will yield myself as
much time as I shall consume. It's good to have the gavel.
Thank you for your attendance here. One thing I'd like to
ask is, in the Eastern Ukraine with the disturbances, do we
have any proof--not suspicion but proof--that Russians have
been involved in the takeover of the buildings and
participating physically?
Ms. Nuland. Congressman, let me say that the evidence is
overwhelming that this was a very carefully orchestrated, well-
planned, well-targeted, well-coordinated effort to take over
buildings in four cities on--within the same 24-hour period
with identical tactics. There is considerable information out
on social media, out in the public domain in Ukraine that
points directly to involvement of folks who are not resident in
those cities and are not resident, in fact, in Ukraine.
As you may have seen, the Ukrainian government has also put
out publicly its recent arrests and rollups of GRU and other
intelligence officers in various Ukrainian cities, including
these, over the last couple of weeks. There are also a number
of absolutely wild stories, like in Kharkiv, where when the mob
first started forming it showed up to take over the opera house
rather than what its intended target turned out to be, which
was the local administration building and the local interior
building, indicating that these were not boys from Kharkiv and
they were not quite as well planned and executed as they might
have been, opera house not being a very significant threat.
I don't think that we have any doubt that the preponderance
of evidence indicates direct Russian involvement here, but in
this setting I'm not prepared to go further.
Mr. Cohen. I understand. I can read that. It seems like a
cookie cutter from what they did in Crimea, but in Crimea was
there not actual sightings of--even though they had their masks
on and you can never know who the ``lone ranger'' might be, but
that there were actually Russians there.
Ms. Nuland. Crimea was host to Russian bases.
Mr. Cohen. Navy.
Ms. Nuland. There were significant numbers of troops, which
had dual-use capability, as we saw during the occupation
annexation. And then they were of course reinforced with
Spetsnaz and other military assets directly from Russia at the
time of the annexation.
I think the concern that we have, in addition to what's
going on currently in the cities, as Secretary Kerry said
yesterday before the SFRC, is that this is the same playbook,
and the effort here is to create the pretext or the excuse for
a larger Russian reinforcement over the borders in defense of
ethnic Russians or Russian citizens who are not getting their
way by force.
Mr. Cohen. We, as I understand it, reduced our joint
relationship with Russia in the space program. We're still
going to, as I understand it, participate in maintaining the
space station, but we eliminated some of our activities. What
activities did we eliminate, and what was the purpose of that?
Does that strike them financially in that we give them X amount
of money, or was it simply a blow to their pride?
Ms. Nuland. Well, Congressman after Crimea, did a complete
review of U.S. bilateral relations with Russia. We have
suspended the vast majority of our programs that go to economic
cooperation, that go to military-to-military cooperation, and
that go to a lot of the technical cooperation that we had been
doing.
We have maintained the relationship in areas of high
national interest to the United States--obviously the Iran
talks, the work we're doing on Syria chemical weapons. Parts of
the space program where that relationship is vital to the
safety and security of the program continue, but my
understanding is that most of the routine other things have
been curtailed, as have other U.S. government programs with
Russia. But I would refer you to NASA for more specifics on
what they've curtailed.
Mr. Cohen. In Syria, have the Russians been working with us
in trying to locate and remove the weapons?
Ms. Nuland. This has been a matter of intensive diplomatic
effort, and Secretary Kerry's direct diplomacy with Foreign
Minister Lavrov from the time of the negotiation of the U.N.
Security Council resolution in September that provided for the
removal of these weapons. The Russian role here has been to
work with the Syrian government on their implementation. We
consider that this has been too slow. There have been
obstacles. The Russians do continue to work with us to try to
speed those things up, but in this setting I can't speak any
further about the details of that.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you. The questions I thought about
earlier--and these were criticisms that I didn't feel were
warranted but they were still within my constituency, and one
was about the $100 billion loan guarantee. Much of that money,
if I remember correctly, my constituent complaint was that some
of that would go to Russia, probably to the energy debt that
Ukraine has. Are there any stipulations that that money will
not be money that basically just goes right back to Russia?
Ms. Nuland. In the context of the negotiations that Ukraine
is having with the IMF, the IMF is looking at the totality of
Ukrainian budget obligations, as we talked about earlier,
trying to ensure that the corruption is squeezed out of the
system, that energy prices are normalized, that--now that the
hryvnia is floating, that they are being responsible in fiscal
and monetary terms. But Ukraine does have some outstanding
legitimate gas debt to Russia, in the context of working
through all of that, the IMF is advising the Ukrainians on what
does need to be paid out of budget and what is illegitimate,
and working also with the Russians on that.
With regard to our loan guarantee, as I said, we're
currently in discussions with the Ukrainian government now that
the legislation has been passed on exactly how it would/should/
could be used in support of that larger conversation the IMF is
having. Our priority, and the Ukrainians' priority as I
understand it, is to use our money to help implement these
energy sector reforms that have been put in place to support
the IMF, to help implement the anticorruption programming, but
the bulk of the money will go to help cushion the most
vulnerable Ukrainians from the increased gas and energy and oil
prices that will be required in order to normalize the economy,
so to strengthen a social safety net program. But those
negotiations are ongoing now.
Mr. Cohen. The issues that were raised by some
constituents--and--they were about possible neo-Nazis being
involved in the--in the group that took over. I know you can't
assure me that everybody that's in power there is a George
McGovern or a Chuck Percy, but do we have any assurances that
those concerns are not valid?
Ms. Nuland. Congressman, it's absolutely clear that during
the period of the building takeovers in Kiev there were some
extremist elements that got into some of these buildings. They
were talked out of these buildings and disarmed by other Maidan
participants, other members of the Ukrainian political
structure, many of whom are either serving in the current
transitional government now or are members of the Rada, which
supported the government.
What's most important here is that the transitional
government was voted in by the vast majority of members of the
parliament representing all of the regions and all of the
political colors of Ukraine. All of this very difficult, very
painful legislation that they're putting in place with regard
to energy sector reform, anticorruption, et cetera, is also
being voted through democratically after lots of debate with
broad support in the Rada. The Rada also called for these
elections. We have some 20 candidates representing everybody
from the far right to the far left, and lots of moderate
candidates in the middle.
The Ukrainian people will have a choice, and it is quite
interesting that public opinion polling in Ukraine now
indicates that these extremist elements, whether they are the
Communists or whether they are the private sector candidate,
are polling well below 3 percent on both ends of the scale.
That speaks well to the moderating influence of an increasingly
democratic Ukrainian system.
Mr. Burgess. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. Cohen. Yes.
Mr. Burgess. Madam Secretary, I'm going to have to take off
as well. I just wanted to thank you for being so generous with
your time this morning. I appreciate your efforts and look
forward to perhaps seeing you May 25th--in Kiev when the
elections are ongoing. But thank you for your efforts in this,
and the country is counting on you. Thank you.
Ms. Nuland. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Cohen. Couple of questions. The Tartars or the Tatars
in Crimea, there was one killed, as I understand it, and the
treatment may have not been so wonderful from the Russians. Is
there concern there about the treatment of that minority group
in Crimea?
Ms. Nuland. We're very concerned about the situation for
Crimean Tatars. They are concerned themselves. I think some
members of Congress may have had a chance to see the Crimean
Tatar leader when he was here over the past week.
The incident you reference was the March 3rd abduction of
Crimean Tatar activist Reshat Ametov. He was abducted in
Simferopol. Two weeks later his body was found 28 miles away in
a small village. According to local media, that body bore clear
evidence of torture. In another notable case, massed pro-
Russian forces kidnapped Yuri Shevchenko from a train station
in Simferopol. He was on his way to visit friends. He seems to
have been mistaken for another activist.
As I said at the beginning, we are concerned about the
human rights situation inside Crimea. We have made these
concerns known to the Russian government in the Kerry-Lavrov
conversations and handed over significant case information and
demanded a response.
Mr. Cohen. Has Mr. Erdogan made his voice known on this
issue at all?
Ms. Nuland. Yes, the Turkish government has been quite
active on this subject and they do participate with us in the
small group that works on Ukraine.
Mr. Cohen. Two last questions. One is, any indices that
there's any activity in the Caucasus?
Ms. Nuland. You're talking about the Russian Northern
Caucasus.
Mr. Cohen. Right.
Ms. Nuland. As you know, the Northern Caucasus is never
peaceful. There was a significant crackdown on separatist
activity by Russian security forces in the run-up to the Sochi
Olympics--pretty devastating clean-out there. They've been
pretty----
Mr. Cohen. I'll withdraw that question----
Ms. Nuland. Yeah.
Mr. Cohen [continuing]. Because if you knew the answer, you
couldn't tell me or you had to kill me, and we don't want
either one of those things to happen.
Ms. Nuland. I don't want to kill you, Congressman.
Mr. Cohen. I'm going to yield back, but I've just had this
thought, the Russians and the Ukrainians had a boxing series,
and it was a big deal, and the Russians won 4 to 1. Maybe this
would be better for the ambassador, but I wondered if Vitali
Klitschko hasn't offered the opportunity for Mr. Putin to have
an exhibition match with him, and I'm sure he would take him up
on it, and it'd be wonderful to watch.
Ms. Nuland. The ambassador says they'd be glad to see it,
yeah.
Mr. Cohen. Yeah, I think I would too. I'd pay to see that
fight, so to speak.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Cardin. Let me thank Congressman Cohen for substituting
while we had a vote on the floor of the Senate.
I want to just ask a few follow-up questions. I want to
talk a little bit more about energy, Senator Whitehouse's
point. I understand the longer-term strategies on dealing with
the shale and dealing with energy efficiency, and I couldn't
agree more. I think that's, an area of great interest.
There are conflicting incentives here. Russia makes a lot
of money off of Ukraine, and there are pipelines through
Ukraine that affect other countries, in addition to just Russia
and Ukraine. What is our strategy in the short term to try to
provide more security to Ukraine and some of the other
countries in that region as it relates to energy sources? There
has been some discussion--in regards to liquefied natural gas.
There's been other discussions about other sources that could
be made available to Ukraine in the region other than Russia.
Do we have a strategy to try to remove the potential leverage
that Russia has over Ukraine on energy supply?
Ms. Nuland. Thank you, Senator. We did talk a little bit
about this while you were out. I think your Republican
colleagues asked some questions about it.
Mr. Cardin. Oh, good.
Ms. Nuland. You'll see some of that in the record. We are
working hard with the Ukrainians and with the Europeans to
provide some cushion, some diversification in the short run,
even as we work on some of these longer-term things.
The most likely source of quick gas for Ukraine in the
event of a shutoff comes in reverse flows from Slovakia, from
Hungary, from Poland. This requires some upgrading of
infrastructure, and it requires some investment; it requires
some political decisions. As I may have mentioned, Secretary
Kerry and High Representative Ashton and the EU's Commissioner
for Energy Oettinger met last week to talk about this very
subject and directed their teams over the next three weeks to
accelerate talks between the Slovaks and the Ukrainians in
particular, but also looking at EU funding support, U.S.
funding support for this kind of reverse flow. That's the best
thing we can do. We're also working in the Moldovan context,
with Romania and with the EU on interconnector infrastructure,
which would also allow reverse flow. That speaks more generally
to strengthening and revitalizing the intra-European energy
market.
The other topic of conversation at the EU last week was how
they can strengthen the interconnector system, the LNG terminal
system, across the European space, across EU space, so that
there are more flows, more options, which reduces prices, makes
them more competitive when they negotiate with Gazprom. That's
what's resulting already in lower gas prices within Central and
Western Europe, that they are more competitive than Ukraine has
been because they have more options.
Mr. Cardin. That's an encouraging report. I take it we have
certain plans in place in the event that Russia imposes
additional pressure on Ukraine?
Ms. Nuland. We do. The Ukrainians have been pretty
strategic in ensuring that their storage tanks are well-
stocked, and as I said, some of these reverse flow things are
the best option in the short run. That said, you'll remember
that in 2010, when the Russians, for the second time, cut off
the gas completely from Ukraine, it didn't last long because it
cost them a fortune because Ukraine is a transit country to
others and to some of their major markets in Central Europe.
Mr. Cardin. Yeah. I think that's a double-edged sword.
Ms. Nuland. It is.
Mr. Cardin. We understand that.
Ms. Nuland. It is.
Mr. Cardin. But sometimes Russia's calculations are not
easy for us to logically understand.
Ms. Nuland. Blessedly, it's spring and summer now, so it
gives us some time.
Mr. Cardin. That's true. It helps us a good deal.
Can we talk a little bit about the economic progress in
Ukraine, which also deals with energy cost? One of the major
areas of protest is when energy costs go up in Ukraine. The
warmer seasons are coming, that will help. But can you just
talk a little bit about how the reforms are taking place in
Ukraine and whether the popular support will be adequate so
that politically this can be accomplished?
Ms. Nuland. Senatorin the context of the IMF agreement, the
Ukrainians have been asked to make a huge amount of change
quickly, not only in the energy sector, but also to squeeze out
corruption throughout the public sector and in all of the
different--in agriculture, in energy and in other places, as
well as in public procurement. They have passed a huge number
of new bills already, and they are working this week on further
steps, both in support of the IMF program, but in support of
cleaning up Ukraine.
The Maidan was about many things, but it was very strongly
about a sense that the leadership of Ukraine was kleptocratic,
was that too much money was going into their private pockets,
that not enough was going to the Ukrainian people, that it was
disappearing. I think some of these documents that we've seen
have certainly supported that. There is strong support across
the country for anti-corruption measures. It is difficult to
make some of these energy reforms. They will hit households.
But this is why it is so important and such a strong signal
of American support that in a bipartisan fashion, both houses
of Congress supported the $1 billion loan guarantee, because
one of the things we're going to do with the loan guarantee is
support Ukrainian programs to cushion the poorest Ukrainians
from the impact there.
Mr. Cardin. Oh.
Ms. Nuland. We do think the government of Ukraine has to do
more outreach to the regions, has to explain these programs, as
do those members of the Rada who have voted for them. We think
this'll be a hot topic in the election campaign, but we are
gratified that the legislative measures that have passed in the
Ukrainian parliament have had broad popular support, that--have
had broad political support across the parties, because there
was an understanding across political elites that things have
to change in Ukraine, or they just become more and more
dependent.
Mr. Cardin. I fully agree in regards to the popular desire
to rid their country of corruption. I think that is clearly a
commitment that the populace understands needs to be
implemented by their government, and they strongly not only
support it, but demand it, as they did during the Orange
Revolution, as they did now. I've been in Ukraine. I was there
shortly after the Orange Revolution. I've been back a couple
times since. And you hear that frequently as one of the battle
cries of a free Ukraine, free from corruption.
But as you get to pricing of energy and a more accurate
cost, that's a hard political sell.
Ms. Nuland. It is.
Mr. Cardin. It has to be done.
Ms. Nuland. It is.
Mr. Cardin. Hard political sell. I'm pleased to see that
part of our assistance will go towards mitigating the harm to
lower-income families. That's not only the right political
message, but it's also the right policy message for the growth
of the Ukrainian economy.
These changes have to take place. But knowing that Russia
will use propaganda to try and take advantage wherever they
can, I think we need to understand that the explanations to the
Ukrainian people will be mixed based upon what Russia will be
doing.
Ms. Nuland. Absolutely. We have consistently encouraged the
Ukrainian government to send its representatives out to the
east, to have town hall meetings, to bring regional
representatives to Kiev to talk about these things. They have
started doing a lot more of that, particularly in the context
of the dicey security situation. I think in the conversations
that we and Secretary Kerry have had with Prime Minister
Yatsenyuk, he hopes to do much more of that in the coming weeks
and days.
Mr. Cardin. I thank you so much for your appearance here. I
think this has been extremely helpful to our commission's work
and to the work of the Congress, and we fully intend to keep
the unity between the administration and Congress on this
effort. We understand there are short-term, medium-term and
long-term objectives that we need to accomplish, and we look
forward to you keeping us informed so that we can do everything
we can to support the people of Ukraine, as I said earlier.
We appreciate you being here. We appreciate the ambassador
being here. And with that, the commission's hearing will stand
adjourned. Thank you.
Ms. Nuland. Thank you, Chairman.
A P P E N D I X
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Prepared Statements
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Let me welcome everyone here today and thank you, Assistant
Secretary Nuland, for agreeing to participate in this important and
timely hearing. I look forward to examining the current situation in
Ukraine and discussing how the United States, together with the
international community, including the EU and the OSCE, can best assist
Ukraine and deter further Russian aggression.
Since late November, Ukraine has been in turmoil, with a
deteriorating economy and public unrest by millions of protestors fed
up with the human rights and democracy rollback, and the massive
corruption that characterized the four-year rule of Viktor Yanukovych.
The largely peaceful protests culminated in a violent crackdown,
resulting in the killing of more than 80 people in a span of 3 days.
This, in turn, led to Yanukovych's removal by a sizeable majority in
parliament on February 22. Since then, an interim government has been
working at a rapid pace to address numerous internal challenges, moving
forward on badly needed economic and political reforms and preparing
for the crucial May 25th presidential elections.
As if these internal challenges weren't enough, just a few days
into the interim government's tenure, Russia seized Crimea by force.
Russia held an illegal, farcical referendum and annexed the peninsula.
Russia's illegal actions violate numerous international obligations,
including the core principles of the Helsinki Final Act. The land grab,
cloaked in the cloth of self-determination, brings to mind darker times
in Europe's history, undermines the international order and sets a
dangerous precedent. We saw Russia take similar action in Georgia, and
now in Crimea in Ukraine. If this goes unchecked and if we do not speak
with a unified voice, it just encourages more irresponsible action by
Russia and other countries around the world that might be so inclined.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to threaten Ukraine's sovereignty and
territorial integrity with further military intervention, and attempts
to undermine the legitimacy of the new government, including through a
propaganda campaign where truth is a casualty. In the last few days,
Russian agents have fomented protests in several eastern cities in an
attempt to destabilize Ukraine and make it more amenable to Russia's
influence. Yet these efforts do not appear to be finding fertile
ground. It is clear that Ukrainians want to live in a united Ukraine.
Even among ethnic Russians, there have been no great cries of
discrimination. And it is clear that the people of Ukraine long for the
rule of law, transparency, democracy and respect for human rights. They
want to be afforded the dignity and respect that all human beings
desire and deserve. The May 25 elections will be vital to understanding
the aspirations of the people of Ukraine and the course they want to
chart for their future. A free and democratic electoral process is a
powerful response to Russian perceptions and Russian aggression.
Given what's at stake, it is so important for the Administration,
the Congress and the international community to respond, and I believe
it is absolutely essential that we speak with a strong united voice in
standing with the people of Ukraine. I particularly want to note the
vital work of the OSCE and its various institutions, which have been
actively engaged in sending monitoring missions and representatives to
help foster security and respect for human rights. The OSCE has just
deployed a large special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. I hope that
Russia will not prohibit this mission, as well as other smaller OSCE
missions, from entering Crimea.
I am especially gratified that last week, the Senate and House--on
an overwhelming bipartisan basis--were able to send to the President,
for his signature, legislation underscoring our country's solidarity
with the Ukrainian people with tangible economic, democracy and
security assistance. This legislation also sanctions Ukrainians and
Russians responsible for undermining Ukrainian sovereignty and massive
corruption. We must continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as
they defend their democracy, integrity and independence. We must
ourselves defend the Helsinki principles, and other international
principles, which Russia has so blatantly violated.
As Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs,
Secretary Nuland continues to play a central role in forging and
implementing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, Russia and the region
during this extraordinarily challenging time. I look forward to your
testimony.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, Co-Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Recently hundreds of pro-Russian protestors seized and damaged
government buildings in several eastern Ukrainian cities. Meanwhile,
tens of thousands of Russian troops remain on the borders of Ukraine,
ready to invade at any time. Many people believe that some of the
protestors are Russian operatives and that these events are part of a
Russian government policy to destabilize Ukraine and so undermine its
sovereignty and democracy.
This comes on the heels of the Russian government's illegitimate
annexation of Crimea--a gross violation of the core principles of the
OSCE as well as several multilateral and bilateral agreements between
Ukraine and Russia. The military occupation and annexation of Crimea by
means of an illegal referendum is the most blatant assault on a
European country's territorial integrity since the signing of the 1975
Helsinki Final Act.
The Russian government claims it is concerned about threats to
ethnic Russians and other minorities by the new, pro-Western
government. Yet recent surveys show an overwhelming majority of
Ukrainians, including minorities, do not believe that Russian-speakers
are facing increased pressure since the flight of Victor Yanukovych and
installation of a new government. It is remarkable the extent to which
Ukrainian citizens of every ethnicity and every faith--Orthodox,
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim--are united in their
condemnation of Russian government aggression and their desire to live
in a peaceful, united, independent, democratic Ukraine.
In the past six months the Ukrainian people have shown tremendous
courage, character, faith, responsibility, and maturity. They are going
to have to continue doing so--as they implement deep economic and
political reforms, conduct the political campaign running up to May 25
presidential elections, and face down Russia, posing an existential
threat to Ukrainian independence. Each of these tasks are daunting, to
say the least.
That is why our country is standing with the Ukrainian people as
never before. The Ukraine Support Act, passed by overwhelming
bipartisan majorities, is now public law, assisting Ukraine and
sanctioning individuals responsible for undermining its sovereignty.
And the international community has resolutely condemned Russia's
aggression in Ukraine. Some diplomatic and economic sanctions have been
instituted, but we need to do more should the need arise. The United
States and international community simply cannot permit outright
aggression that not only subverts Ukraine's independence, but peace and
security in the regions and, indeed, throughout the world.
Prepared Statement of Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary for European
and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Thank you, Chairman Cardin and Co-Chairman Smith, for inviting me
to testify before you today on the situation in Ukraine. It is a
particular honor for me to do so before the U.S. Helsinki Commission,
whose purpose is to advance security through the promotion of human
rights, democracy and economic, environmental and military cooperation
in the Euro-Atlantic Area.
Let me also express my gratitude for the leadership that Congress
has shown with the overwhelming passage of the H.R. 4152 and S. 2183 in
support of Ukraine. Not only did this legislation pass with strong
bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, it was also backed by
all 17 Commissioners of this body. That unity sent a strong signal that
the United States stands united for Ukraine at this critical moment in
its history.
For almost 40 years, the United States and this Commission have
worked with our TransAtlantic Allies and partners to uphold the
principles of the Helsinki Final Act. These founding principles are
universal, and they include ``respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms;'' ``the inviolability of frontiers;'' ``territorial integrity
of states''; and ``the peaceful settlement of disputes.''
Russia's actions in Ukraine are an affront to each of these
fundamental principles. Its occupation of Crimea, rubberstamped by an
illegitimate referendum conducted at the barrel of a gun, have
tarnished its credibility and diminished its international standing in
the eyes of Ukrainians and the world. Reports of human rights abuses in
Crimea since the Russian occupation have shocked the conscience. Last
month, a Crimean Tatar activist protesting the Russian occupation of
the peninsula was abducted, tortured and killed by pro-Russian
irregulars. Russia has also attempted to intimidate Ukrainians by
amassing more than 40 thousand troops and quick strike aircraft along
the border, and with trade blockades and gas price hikes of 80 percent.
This week's violent occupation of government buildings in Kharkhiv,
Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol deepen our concern. Far from a
spontaneous set of events, these incidents bear all the hallmarks of an
orchestrated campaign of incitement, separatism and sabotage of the
Ukrainian state, aided and abetted by the Russian security services.
So today Ukraine is a frontline state in the struggle for freedom
and all the principles this commission holds dear. Ukraine is also
replete with heroes in that struggle. It took guts for the Ukrainian
people to stand up to a regime awash in unchecked cronyism, corruption
and violence against its people. It took grit for tens of thousands of
Ukrainians to spend weeks and months on the Maidan enduring subfreezing
winter temperatures to demand dignity and a better future.
I think of Tetiana Chornovol, the investigative journalist and
activist dedicated to exposing Yanukovich-era graft. She was savagely
beaten by anti-Maidan thugs on Christmas Day. Today she serves as chief
of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the new government.
I think of Air Force Colonal Yuliy Mamchur, who led his troops to
stand up to Russian forces when they came to take over Belbek airbase
in Crimea. Together Mamchur and his forces sang the Ukrainian national
hymn as Russian troops swarmed the base. The Russian military took him
into custody for five days, trying to pressure him to defect. But his
allegiance to Ukraine remained steadfast.
Today, the United States stands with Ukraine in its efforts to
forge its own path forward to a freer, peaceful, and unified future.
Our approach includes four pillars: first, our bilateral and
multilateral support for Ukraine; second, the costs we are imposing on
Russia for its aggressive actions; third, our efforts to deescalate the
crisis diplomatically; and fourth, our unwavering commitment to the
security of our NATO Allies who also live on the frontlines of this
crisis. Let me address each of these briefly.
First, we support the Ukrainian people and the transitional
government in the courageous steps they are taking to restore economic
health, democratic choice and internal stability and security to the
country. The Rada has passed landmark anti-corruption measures, deficit
reduction measures and taken difficult steps to reform the energy
sector. These necessary reforms will require painful sacrifices from
all Ukrainians. But they also open the way to an IMF package of up to
$18 billion in support.
The United States stands ready to help as the country addresses its
immense challenges. Our $1 billion loan guarantee, in conjunction with
IMF and EU assistance, will help implement these reforms and will
cushion some of impact on the most vulnerable in Ukrainian society.
And we have approximately $92 million in FY 2013 State/USAID
funding and an anticipated $86 million in FY 2014 State/USAID funding
for assistance to Ukraine such as strengthening anti-corruption
enforcement efforts, revising public procurement legislation,
introducing agriculture and energy sector reforms, deepening
privatization efforts, improving the transparency and quality of higher
education and helping Ukraine prepare for free, fair elections on May
25th.
And we are working with the international community to push back
against Russian propaganda, lies and efforts to destabilize Ukraine's
regions. The OSCE has already deployed more than 70 monitors in ten
locations throughout Ukraine as part of a special monitoring mission
and the mandate allows the mission to grow to 500. The OSCE Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will also play an essential
role by sending 1000 observers for the Presidential election, one of
its biggest missions ever.
Second, Russia is already paying a high price for its actions, and
that cost will go up if its pressure on Ukraine does not abate. Across
the board, Russia has found itself isolated. The United States along
with all other G-7 members declined to attend the Sochi G-8 Summit and
suspended participation in G-8 activities. Instead, the G-7 will meet
in Brussels. On March 27th, the United States and 99 other countries in
the UN General Assembly reaffirmed the unity and territorial integrity
of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. Only 11 voted
against. Along with our Allies, we have suspended practical cooperation
between NATO and Russia. We have suspended most bilateral economic and
military cooperation of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential
Commission. The President signed two Executive Orders authorizing
sanctions against those responsible and finding that the actions and
policies of the Russian government undermine democratic process and
institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability,
sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the
misappropriation of its assets. These sanctions have been carefully
coordinated with the EU and other global partners. And today we are
considering further measures in response to Russia's continued pressure
on Ukraine.
And the financial markets are reacting. The ruble has fallen.
Capital flight from Russia is at a high not seen in years. And Russia
has been downgraded by major credit rating agencies on account of its
actions. These costs will only increase if Russia does not change
course.
At the same time, we want to try to de-escalate the crisis.
Secretary Kerry has met three times with Russian Foreign Minister
Lavrov in recent weeks, with the support of the Ukrainian government at
a time when Russia would not meet directly with Ukraine. Earlier this
week, Foreign Minister Lavrov finally agreed to sit down in the next
ten days with Ukraine, the EU and Secretary Kerry to discuss de-
escalation, demobilization, support for elections and constitutional
reform. Between now and then, we have made it clear that Russia needs
to take concrete steps to disavow separatist actions in Eastern
Ukraine, pull back its forces outside the country, and demonstrate that
they are prepared to come to these discussions to do what is necessary
to de-escalate. So Russia has a choice--to work with the international
community to help build an independent Ukraine that can meet the hopes
and aspirations of all Ukrainians, or they can face greater isolation
and economic cost. We do not have high expectations of a rapid
breakthrough, but it is critically important to keep trying.
Even as we try to de-escalate, with Russian troops ringing Ukraine
for weeks now, we cannot be complacent about the security of our allies
who live closest to Russia. Our message to Putin and Russia is clear:
NATO territory is inviolable. We will defend every piece of it. And we
are mounting a visible deterrent to Russia testing that proposition. In
that vein, we and our NATO Allies are providing visible reassurance on
land, sea and in the air to our Central and Eastern European members.
The United States has increased our contribution to NATO's Baltic Air
Policing mission. We have bolstered the U.S.-Poland aviation detachment
in Lask, Poland with 12 F-16s and 200 personnel. We extended the stay
of one of our ships, the USS Truxtun in the Black Sea, and will send
another ship there in the coming weeks. NATO is flying AWACS over
Poland and Romania. And last week at NATO, Allies agreed to extend and
expand these efforts.
More broadly, the events in Ukraine are a wake-up call for all of
us. That everything we have stood for over 40 years as a community of
free nations is at risk if we allow aggressive acts to go unchecked and
unpunished. As a community, North Americans and Europeans, we must
continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as they say no--``ni'' in
Ukrainian--to the tactics and brutality of the 19th century and yes--
``tak'' in Ukrainian--to a 21st century that respects their
sovereignty, their choice and their human dignity.
Thank you again for this invitation. I look forward to your
questions.
Prepared Statement of Oleksandr Motsyk, Ambassador of Ukraine to the
United States
Dear Members of Congress: Today's hearing comes at a time of great
challenge and grave danger not only for Ukraine, but also for the
European and global security as a whole.
A cornerstone of international nonproliferation regime is the
notion that you don't need to have weapons of mass destruction and can
rely on international law and the power of international community for
protection against unwarranted aggression.
After the end of the bloodiest war in the history of humankind, the
United Nations Organization was created ``to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war'' and ``to establish conditions
under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from
treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained,''
where the most fundamental of such conditions is that ``All Members
shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use
of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of
any state.''
The same principles were embodied in the Budapest Memorandum on
Security Assurances of 1994. In exchange for Ukraine's giving up the
third largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the Russian Federation, the
United Kingdom and the United States ``reaffirm[ed] their commitment to
Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the
independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine; . . .
to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their
weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or
otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.''
All these principles have been grossly violated by the aggression
of the Russian Federation--one of the guarantor states under the
Budapest Memorandum--against Ukraine. All this was done under the false
pretext of protecting Russian speaking population of Crimea and pulled
through a fake ``referendum'' in violation of all norms of Ukrainian
law. Only 32.4% of the Crimea residents took part in so called
``referendum'' and it was boycotted completely by the indigenous people
of Crimea--the Crimean Tatars.
As the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors
stated during her recent visit to Crimea, she found no evidence of
violations or threats to the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking
citizens of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Thus, the
pretext for invasion was completely trumped-up, the ``referendum'' was
a sham, and its results were falsified in a blatant attempt to justify
a land grab.
Russia's aggression received overwhelming condemnation by the
international community. Although Russia vetoed the decision by the UN
Security Council, 100 countries voted for a UN General Assembly
resolution in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity. There have
been numerous statements in support of Ukraine and in condemnation of
Russia's actions by various international actors, including the OSCE,
the United States and other G-7 nations, the European Union, the
Council of Europe, and NATO.
At the same time, the fact remains that the security guarantees
that had been given to Ukraine did not work. International legal
mechanisms so far have failed to achieve their purpose and have been
powerless to prevent aggression in Crimea.
Moreover, Russia does not want to stop there. Instead, Russia
concentrates its troops near Ukraine's border. Russian government is
pushing hard for federalization of Ukraine. Russian security services
continue to orchestrate provocations and instigate separatist movements
in the East. Criminal terrorist groups, organized and controlled by
Moscow, are carrying out seizures of administrative buildings and
critical infrastructure facilities in the eastern regions of Ukraine,
seeking their secession from our country and accessions into the
Russian Federation, destabilizing the political and economic situation
and attempting to disrupt the presidential elections scheduled on May
25, 2014. As part of this scenario, separatist groups requested
military assistance from the Russian Federation. All of this clearly
confirms that Russia launched the second phase of the aggression plan
against Ukraine in the East.
By implementing this plan, Russia is attempting to tear away the
territory of eastern Ukraine, turn it under the control of Russia into
illegitimate quasi formations and sources of constant tension.
We cannot and will not allow it to happen. However, we cannot stop
it on our own. We need strong actions by the international community to
restore the status quo of Crimea as Ukrainian land, and thereby to
restore the credibility in international law and order. So far, the
aggressor has not backed down, and the pressure on Russia should only
increase until Crimea is returned and all attempts to violate Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity are abandoned.
Ukraine appreciates the resolute position of the United States, in
particular the bipartisan support of the U.S. Congress which recently
passed strong legislation that was signed by President Obama: the H.R.
4152 and S. 2183, the ``Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity,
Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014,'' which
provides for loan guarantees for Ukraine and directs the imposition of
sanctions; and S. 2183, which authorizes funds to enhance U.S. news and
information programming to the people of Ukraine and the neighboring
regions.
Nowadays, our joint efforts aimed at strengthening Ukraine's
defense capabilities, modernizing Ukrainian Armed Forces and working
together on maintaining peace and security are more important than
ever.
Ukrainian and American soldiers were together in Iraq, Afghanistan
and in all peacekeeping missions under the aegis of NATO. Today, the
threat to peace and security is looming over Ukraine, and the Ukraine-
U.S. defense is becoming more important than ever. On April 1, 2014,
the Parliament of Ukraine passed the law allowing conducting eight
multinational military exercises on the territory of Ukraine, including
Ukraine-U.S. exercises ``Rapid Trident 2014'' and ``Sea Breeze 2014''
with the participation of NATO members and partners.
We thank the United States for its valuable support at this
critical time, both with upholding Ukraine's sovereignty and security,
as well as with helping us tackle the most pressing economic
challenges.
Ukraine stays firmly on its path towards becoming a true European
democracy and a prosperous market economy. We have signed the political
part of the Association Agreement with the European Union, and the rest
of the document is to be signed shortly.
The Government announced an ambitious program of reforms. Despite
very difficult measures that need to be taken, the result will be a
sound economic and financial system that provides opportunities for
growth and high living standards. As part of that program, the budget
spending is being reduced, the government is to be downsized, the
taxation streamlined. The new economic policy encompasses antitrust
measures, deregulation of the economy and improvement for investments,
as well as creation of a competitive energy market that would stimulate
energy efficiency and lessen Ukraine's dependence on Russian gas.
At the same time, the situation in the Ukrainian economy now
remains quite strained and we need urgent financial assistance,
particularly from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the
EBRD and other international financial institutions.
After several weeks of difficult negotiations, the IMF announced
that it had reached a preliminary compromise agreement with the
Government of Ukraine on an economic reform program that can be
supported by a two-year Stand-By Arrangement. The financial support
from the broader international community that the program will unlock
amounts to US$27 billion over the next two years. The assistance from
the IMF will range between US$14-18 billion, with the precise amount to
be determined once all bilateral and multilateral support is accounted
for. We expect that this agreement will be approved by the IMF
Management and the Executive Board in April this year.
We are encouraged by the announcements made by other international
financial organizations, including the World Bank and the EBRD,
regarding additional financial assistance to Ukraine.
Once again, now is a critical time, both for Ukraine and for the
international community. Our country has always been and will remain a
reliable partner of the United States, and we appreciate the U.S.
support.
There is too much at stake now, and our actions at this moment will
have profound ramifications for international peace, security and
economy for years to come. Thank you.