[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 24, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4611-S4612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       U.S. AND EUROPEAN SUPPORT FOR ALLIES THREATENED BY RUSSIA

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, last week I returned from 3 days in 
Poland and Latvia. I participated in the global security forum in 
Wroclaw, Poland, where I met with key foreign leaders from Eastern 
Europe in particular. I also visited U.S. and allied forces 
participating in military exercises in Latvia.
  For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the West is 
confronted by an armed aggressor directly challenging the principle of 
a Europe whole, free, and at peace. European officials I spoke with see 
Russian President Vladimir Putin as opportunistic, determined to expand 
Russia's sphere of influence, and ready to exploit any vulnerabilities 
in nearby European countries.
  Our friends on the frontlines in Central and Eastern Europe want more 
than words of solidarity from the European Union, NATO, and the United 
States; they want a more robust response and concrete actions to 
counter the Russian threat and deter further Russian aggression.
  The crucible for this effort must come in Ukraine. With the 
Euromaidan Revolution of 2013 and the subsequent election of President 
Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian people have made it clear that their 
future is with the West, with democracy, with responsive and 
transparent governance. President Putin responded by invading eastern 
Ukraine, annexing Crimea, and destabilizing the entire Ukrainian State.
  Ukraine today is a symbol of democratic Europe's resistance to 
Russian domination in the same way that Berlin was in 1948. The 
Ukrainian army has performed commendably under incredibly challenging 
circumstances, but it is no match for Russia's military.
  However, as we witnessed throughout the Communist era in Eastern 
Europe, military power is not the only kind of power, nor does it 
necessarily always prevail. There is also the moral power of those who 
dare to resist, people like Andrei Sakhorov, Vaclav Havel, and Lech 
Walesa. As dissidents, they didn't command armies; instead, they 
commanded immense moral authority. They stood for freedom, and 
ultimately they triumphed.
  Last Friday, at that forum in Wroclaw, I had the privilege of 
presenting Freedom Awards to Ukrainians who embodied their nation's 
courageous resistance and indomitable spirit. One of the awardees was 
Nadiya Savchenko. She has been well known in Ukraine for many years as 
one of the first women to serve as a pilot in the Ukrainian Air Force. 
In 2014, she joined a volunteer battalion to fight separatist forces in 
the country's east.
  Nadiya Savchenko was not present to receive her Freedom Award because 
tragically, outrageously, this hero of the fight for Ukrainian 
independence is imprisoned in a Russian jail. At every turn, Nadiya 
Savchenko has been courageous and unbowed--the embodiment of Ukraine's 
defiance of Russian aggression.
  Captured while fighting in the east, she was handcuffed to a metal 
pipe, surrounded by armed men, and interrogated. When asked who was 
fighting the pro-Russian separatists, she answered, ``All of Ukraine.''
  Held as a prisoner in Russia, she went on an 83-day hunger strike. 
Appearing

[[Page S4612]]

in a cage inside a courtroom, she refused to speak Russian, wore a T-
shirt that displayed the Ukrainian trident, and held up a sign that 
read ``I was born Ukrainian, and I die Ukrainian.''
  President Poroshenko awarded her the title ``Hero of Ukraine,'' and 
her fellow citizens elected her to Parliament. But, truly, she is a 
hero to all of us who seek to restore a Europe that is whole and free.
  I presented the second Freedom Award to the Donetsk National 
University. Last year, pro-Russian separatists seized the city of 
Donetsk and declared a Soviet-style people's republic. Armed rebels 
took over the Donetsk's national university, the region's most 
prestigious college. They ousted the school's Ukrainian rector, ordered 
the Russification of the curriculum, and destroyed any semblance of 
academic freedom. Rather than submit, the rector and core faculty 
members left Donetsk and they transplanted the school roughly 500 miles 
to the west. Donetsk National University became Ukraine's first 
university in exile. It has been a struggle to survive, but this 
university has become a proud symbol of both academic freedom and 
Ukrainian independence.
  The attack on Ukraine has not only galvanized Europe, it also focused 
the attention of Congress on European affairs like no other event 
perhaps since the end of the Cold War, certainly like no other event 
since I have been in the Senate.
  On a bipartisan basis, Members of Congress admire and support 
Ukraine's stand for universal values and independence, and Congress has 
responded. In December, we passed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act 
authorizing the President to provide defensive military assistance to 
Ukraine and to tighten economic sanctions against Russia.
  Through the European Reassurance Initiative, the administration has 
pledged $1 billion to bolster U.S. military deployments, to increase 
our training exercises, and to step up our partnerships with allies, 
including the Baltic States, Poland, Ukraine, Moldavia, and Georgia as 
they strengthen their own defenses. I was pleased to learn last week 
that the administration is planning to preposition tanks and other 
heavy weaponry in the Baltic States and in Eastern Europe to support 
training with regional allies and to show resolve in the face of 
Russian threats.
  These are all important steps forward, but they are not sufficient. 
Within the Transatlantic Alliance and NATO, the United States remains 
the indispensable Nation. If there is going to be a renaissance of the 
alliance in the face of the Russian threat, then the United States must 
lead it with our European allies.
  The United States must mobilize the alliance, our European partners, 
and international financial institutions, such as the IMF, to provide 
generous economic support to Ukraine because no amount of security 
assistance can offset an economic collapse in Kyiv.
  We also must recognize that the challenge for Mr. Putin is not only 
geopolitical; it is ideological. He has mobilized a vast propaganda 
campaign against what he calls ``decadent'' Western values and Western-
style democracy. The United States, along with our allies, must go on 
the offensive to champion our values and our democracy. Just as we did 
during the Cold War, we must develop a 21st-century United States 
Information Agency and a Radio Free Europe-style campaign to counter 
Russia in the information space, including in the competition of ideas 
and values.
  While American leadership is essential, our European allies must also 
step up. NATO leaders made important spending pledges at the Wales 
Summit last September. Now we all need to make good on those 
commitments, including increasing defense budgets to respond to Russian 
threats.
  As we confront a newly aggressive Russia, we should also take heart 
from the Transatlantic Alliance's remarkable track record of 
achievement, thanks in large part to American leadership. Over the last 
seven decades, we have risen to every major challenge--rebuilding 
Europe after World War II; maintaining a united front during the Cold 
War; liberating the captive nations of Eastern Europe and integrating 
them into a Europe whole and free; and today, standing united against 
the challenges of terrorism, Russian aggression, and a nuclear Iran.
  The Russian threat to Eastern and Central Europe is very real. 
President Putin is an autocrat whose popularity is based largely on his 
determination to reassert Russia's domination over its neighbors. But 
we have the means to counter this threat.
  To support Ukraine and other frontline states, we need vigorous U.S. 
leadership of the Transatlantic Alliance, we need a robust mobilization 
of the alliance's military and financial resources, and we need to 
engage Vladimir Putin aggressively in the competition of ideas and 
ideals.
  Our friends in Ukraine are already in this fight. Our allies 
elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe fear that they could be next. 
For the West to rise to this new challenge, the United States once 
again must be the indispensable Nation, and I know that here in the 
Senate we support that effort.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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