[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E943-E944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INTRODUCTION OF SAILORS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 18, 2019

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise with my fellow co-chairs of the 
bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus to introduce the SAILORS ACT, 
or the ``Stopping Aggressive Incursions on Liberty by Ordering Russian 
Sanctions Act.''
  This bill would direct the Administration to sanction 24 senior 
officers of the Russian Federal Security Service and its border patrol 
until it releases all 24 Ukrainian sailors and the three vessels it 
illegally seized in the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018.
  On that day, an unprovoked Russia brazenly fired upon and took 
hostage 24 Ukrainians sailors in international waters. The sailors now 
languish in Russian prisons in Moscow under dire conditions.
  Tragically, this is just the latest in a series of dangerous and 
malicious steps Russia has taken to undermine Ukraine's democratic 
progress and the international rules-based order.
  Since illegally invading Crimea in 2014, Russia now seeks to tighten 
the noose around Ukrainian coastal waters including building a barrier 
in the Kerch Strait to starve Ukraine of vital naval commerce.
  To date, Russia's illegal war in Eastern Ukraine has led to the death 
of over 10,000 innocents and the displacement of millions.
  The international community must not stand idly by as Russia 
increases its aggression in Europe and its efforts to undermine 
democracies globally--including in the United States. The United States 
and the free world must continue to raise the costs of Russian 
aggression to protect those at the edge of liberty.
  This bill sends a message to the Ukrainian sailors and their families 
that the American people have not forgotten their immense sacrifice and 
heroic struggle to protect their nation's democratic future. We call on 
Russia to

[[Page E944]]

immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and safely return them back 
to Ukraine.
  I urge my colleagues to join in this important effort and call for 
the bill's swift passage.

                          ____________________