[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 11, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S928-S929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. INHOFE (for himself, Mr. Portman, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Roberts, 
        Mr. Rubio, Mr. Wicker, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Cotton, 
        Mr. Boozman, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Thune, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Vitter, Mrs. 
        Capito, Mr. Rounds, and Mr. Cornyn):
  S. 452. A bill to provide lethal weapons to the Government of Ukraine 
in order to defend itself against Russian-backed rebel separatists in 
eastern Ukraine; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I am introducing a bill today because 
there is something going on that people are not as aware of as they 
should be.
  We don't have a better friend than King Abdullah in Jordan. I have 
been pleased to get to know him as a personal friend as well as a 
friend of America. I was over there with him last October. We were on 
the Syrian border looking at all the things that are going on right now 
with ISIL and ISIS, and it has been a real tragedy.
  Last week King Abdullah was in the United States for the National 
Prayer Breakfast. While he was here, there were several of us who were 
with him when he got the news that his friend and relative, an F-16 
pilot, had been caged, soaked with gasoline, and burned alive.
  America and the whole world saw what happened and asked: What kind of 
monsters are these people who are doing this over there? They are 
beheading children and pregnant women and burning people alive. Yet 
this is going on. People have to understand this.
  They do understand it in terms of ISIS. But what I want to share with 
you, and introduce legislation to correct, is that it is not just 
happening there, it is also happening in Ukraine right now.
  I happened to be in Ukraine in late October of this year. I went over 
there because they were having their parliamentary elections at the 
time. Ukraine has been such a good friend to us--not just Poroshenko, 
but the rest of the administration that went through the parliamentary 
election has also been a friend.
  Let's keep in mind that the Presidential elections were way back in 
May. This last election was the parliamentary election, and we were 
there to see what was happening in the Ukraine.
  In the Ukraine they have a constitutional requirement that you cannot 
have a seat in Parliament unless you have 5 percent of the vote. This 
is the first time, after the vote when we were there in October, that 
they had a parliamentary election and not one Communist got a seat in 
Parliament. This is the first time in 96 years that not one Communist 
has a seat in the Parliament.
  As bad as things are with ISIS, I suggest that what is going on--and 
I only preface what I am saying so I can demonstrate what a good friend 
Poroshenko and the leadership of the Ukraine is to the United States. 
We have the Russians in there with the separatists doing horrible 
things--things that are just as bad as what is taking place in Syria 
with ISIS and in other places.
  To demonstrate this--it is not a very fun thing to look at, but you 
have to understand what is happening. These are T-72 tanks. Putin keeps 
saying: We don't have any Russians in there with the separatists. It is 
not us. We are not doing it.
  Well, here they are. These are the pictures we brought back with us. 
All those tanks are lined up within Ukraine, and that is clearly what 
they are.
  If you want to see how brutal Putin and everyone else is--it is not 
something anyone enjoys looking at, but you have to know this is going 
on. The tragedies that are taking place in Syria and in other parts of 
the world are also taking place in Ukraine.
  This is a picture of the murders and torture that have been taking 
place there. These people have been disembodied, their heads cut off. 
These are Ukrainian citizens. They are legal citizens. They are the 
ones whom Putin and the rest of them are fighting. For that reason, I 
have introduced legislation to require that the United States offer the 
weaponry.
  By the way, I was making a presentation about this issue and Senator

[[Page S929]]

McCain was there. He said: If you look at all of those tanks, they 
don't have one piece of equipment that could offer a defense against 
those tanks. What have we been giving them? We have been giving them 
MREs and blankets.
  When Poroshenko was here in the United States, he made a speech to 
both Houses. He said that ``one can't win the war with blankets. . . . 
Even more, we cannot keep the peace with a blanket.'' In other words, 
we have to share the very best defensive weapons or weapons that can be 
used offensively with them. They cannot be left naked there when facing 
this kind of abuse. We know that shortly after the heavily armed 
Russian soldiers invaded and took control of the Crimean region in 
February of 2014, the Ukrainian Government and its people faced and 
sustained a deadly force from heavily armed rebel separatists who were 
equipped, trained, and supported by the Russian Federation. We have 
seen pictures of that. This is the first time we have shown pictures 
that document, No. 1, that the equipment came from Russia and Putin, 
and, No. 2, the type of things they are doing over there.
  We passed a law last year that said we would give defensive weaponry 
to the Ukrainians, but it fell short because of one thing--it was 
prescriptive. It said what kind of equipment it would be.
  The bill I am introducing today does two things. It offers the 
equipment we can give them with no restrictions whatsoever, and 
secondly, it does something else I think is very significant, and that 
is we require the President to come up with a strategy. People always 
say: Well, the President doesn't have a strategy against ISIS. It is 
true he doesn't have one, and it is deplorable that he doesn't have 
one. He also doesn't have a strategy for Ukraine. Without a strategy, 
it is not going to work.
  Last week we had a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee. It 
was kind of funny because we had people from the past. We had George 
Shultz, Madeleine Albright, and Henry Kissinger. We were talking about 
the Ukraine at that time and talked about offering some equipment we 
thought should go there, and they said: Well, you have to do that, but 
you can't just send them equipment. You have to specifically demand a 
strategy. In this bill we are saying to the President of the United 
States to not only send over equipment but we need to also provide a 
strategy we can massage as time goes on.
  On February 2, 2015, eight of the former senior ranking diplomatic 
and military officials testified. They included the former U.S. 
Ambassador to the Ukraine, Steven Pifer; former Under Secretary of 
Defense Michele Flournoy; former Supreme Allied Commander ADM James 
Stavridis, and former Deputy Commander to the U.S. Command, Gen. 
Charles Wald. They all served under both Republican and Democratic 
administrations. They released a nonpartisan report calling on 
President Obama to provide Ukraine with lethal weaponry, and this is 
what we talked about in the bill. They encouraged other NATO countries 
to do the same, particularly those that possess and used former Soviet 
equipment and weaponry.
  On January 25, when President Obama stated at a news conference in 
New Delhi, India that the aggression by the rebel separatists in 
eastern Ukraine had Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian 
financing, Russian training, and Russian troops--so he finally agreed. 
It is not something that is debatable or might be happening; it is 
something that is happening. You can see the horrible things that are 
going on there, and you can see the reason it is necessary to get this 
done.
  Some time ago, back when Carl Levin was still here--he is retired, 
and he did such a great job as the chairman of the Senate Armed 
Services Committee for so many years when I was the ranking Republican 
on the Committee on Armed Services. At that time, a year ago in 
October, we wrote the following in the Washington Post:
  We believe that the United States should begin providing defensive 
weapons that would help Ukraine defend its territory. Such weapons 
could include anti-tank weapons to defend against Russian-provided 
armored personnel carriers, ammunition, vehicles and secure 
communications equipment. This would present no threat to Russia unless 
its forces launch further aggression against Ukraine. In other words, 
these weapons are lethal, but not provocative because they are 
defensive.
  That came from Carl Levin and me. This is back before we knew the 
results of the parliamentary election that was so successful and so 
complementary to the West.
  This has been long overdue. There is no one who disagrees with it, 
and even the President recognizes they have the equipment and we are 
not doing the job we should be doing.
  So, with that, I am going to introduce S. 452, and we are going to 
ask for cosponsors to come down and speak on this topic. We have quite 
a long list of cosponsors.
  It doesn't bother me if other Members want to introduce like 
resolutions because we need to get something passed. We need to raise 
the visibility so the people of America know this is not just going on 
in Syria and some of these other countries, but it is also in the 
country of one of our very best friends worldwide, and that best friend 
is the Ukraine.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 452

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Defense of Ukraine Act of 
     2015''.

     SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION TO PROVIDE LETHAL WEAPONS TO THE 
                   GOVERNMENT OF UKRAINE.

       The President is authorized to provide lethal weapons to 
     the Government of Ukraine in order to defend itself against 
     Russian-backed rebel separatists in eastern Ukraine.

     SEC. 3. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

       (a) Strategy.--Not later than 15 days after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to Congress 
     a written report setting forth a comprehensive strategy of 
     the United States to provide lethal weapons to the Government 
     of Ukraine so that it may effectively defend itself from 
     Russian-back rebel aggression.
       (b) Implementation of Strategy.--
       (1) Reports required.--Not later than 90 days after 
     submitting the report required under subsection (a), and 
     every 90 days thereafter, the President shall submit to 
     Congress a written report setting forth a current 
     comprehensive description and assessment of the 
     implementation of the comprehensive strategy set forth in the 
     report required under such subsection.
       (2) Updates.--If the President makes a substantive change 
     to the comprehensive strategy required under subsection (a), 
     the President shall immediately submit a written report to 
     Congress that articulates the change, the reason for the 
     change, and the effect of the change on the overall 
     comprehensive strategy.
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