[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S430-S431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Ukraine
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there is a photograph that we have all
seen: six battle-weary victorious marines raising the American flag on
Iwo Jima. It is one of the most iconic photos of World War II.
It was taken 77 years ago this month. Among those six brave marines
was a coal miner's son from western Pennsylvania. His name was Sgt
Michael Strank. At 25 years of age, he was the oldest of the six flag
raisers. The men in his rifle squad idolized him. One of them said:
``He was the kind of Marine you read about, the kind they make movies
about.''
Sergeant Strank used to tell his men: ``Follow me and I'll try to
bring you all home safely to your mothers.''
One week after he raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi,
Michael Strank was killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was the first
of the six flag raisers to die.
Today, he is buried among America's heroes in Arlington National
Cemetery, but that is not the end of the story.
In 2008, a Marine security guard based at the U.S. Embassy in
Slovakia discovered that Michael Strank was not a natural-born U.S.
citizen; he had received his citizenship through his father when his
father became a U.S. citizen in 1935. So where was this marine's marine
born? He was the first child born into an ethnic Ukrainian family in
what is now Slovakia. Like my own mother, who was born in Lithuania,
Michael Strank came to America with his mother as a toddler, as soon as
his father could save the money for their passage.
Those who were there that day on Iwo Jima will remember that a loud
cheer went up from thousands of marines when they saw, finally, that
red, white, and blue of the U.S. flag flying over the highest peak on
that island. They knew that that day, in the war between freedom and
tyranny, freedom had won.
Today, almost 80 years later, the battle between freedom and tyranny
continues, and one of its new flash points is Ukraine. The Ukrainian
people have made it clear: They want to be free and independent. They
want to chart their own future. They want to choose their own leaders
through elections that they conduct.
This is the future that more than 92 percent of Ukrainians chose in a
referendum in 1991, after Ukraine declared its independence from the
crumbling and corrupt Soviet Union, but Russian President Vladimir
Putin--the old KGB agent--refuses to acknowledge Ukraine's right to
exist, its right to independence, and its right to self-determination.
For almost 100 days, from November 2013 to January 2014, the
Ukrainian people waged a ``Revolution of Dignity'' to force from office
a corrupt, Russian-backed, puppet President--and they won. In
retaliation, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula and parts
of eastern Ukraine and installed a Russian-friendly government. This
forceful occupation of parts of Ukraine by Russia marked the first
time, the first time since World War II ended, that one nation had
redrawn the map of Europe by force.
For the last 8 years, Russia has tried relentlessly to destabilize
the democratically elected Government in Ukraine. This is part of the
reason that President Trump's efforts to withhold congressionally
approved military aid for Ukraine in order to extract political favors
was egregious. Now, Putin has amassed more than 120,000 Russian
soldiers on the borders of Ukraine. Whether Putin is driven by
megalomaniacal delusions of restoring the Soviet Union or is simply
seeking to create chaos and sow dissension among NATO allies is
unclear, but here is what is clear: A Russian invasion of Ukraine would
constitute a grave assault not only on Ukraine, but on the institutions
and agreements that have kept peace in Europe for almost 75 years.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine also could be seen as a danger to our
NATO allies in Poland and in the courageous young Baltic democracies in
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. It would be a catastrophic mistake on
Putin's part, and President Biden has made that point over and over.
Chicago is home to one of the largest Polish communities outside of
Warsaw, the largest Lithuanian community outside of Vilnius, and one of
the largest Ukrainian communities outside of Kyiv. More than 46,000
Ukrainian Americans live in the Chicago area, the third largest
Ukrainian community in the United States.
A week ago, I attended a celebration at the Cultural Center in
Chicago, on Chicago Avenue in Ukrainian Village. Also speaking at that
gathering was Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United
States. I can tell you, the Polish and Lithuanian communities in
Chicago were there standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine--
and with the people of Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic to decide
their own futures.
Vladimir Putin and his henchmen should know that the United States,
NATO, and the entire community of democracies also believe that it is
the right exclusively of Ukraine and other young democracies to protect
their territorial boundaries and decide their own fate. The United
States made its position clear yesterday in the U.N. Security Council.
Ukraine, the United States, NATO, and the entire community of
democracies all want a diplomatic solution to Russia's threats on
Ukraine. That is what we seek. If Vladimir Putin wants to avoid a
debacle that will cost his nation dearly in lives and treasure, he will
agree to this solution.
I commend President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and their
teams for their strong support of Ukrainian independence and against
Russian aggression. The Biden administration has provided significant
military equipment for our Ukrainian friends to ensure that President
Putin knows the price that a further invasion will cost. The
administration has also bolstered the defense capabilities of our NATO
partners in Poland and the Baltics. And if Putin is counting on
partisan division in the Senate to weaken America's resolve to defend
Ukraine and its neighbors, he is mistaken.
Yesterday, Senator Grassley and I introduced a bipartisan
resolution celebrating 100 years of diplomatic relations between the
United States and the Baltic States and reaffirming our close
relationship with these young democracies. Later this week, Senator
Shaheen and I and several of our colleagues, from both parties, will
meet with the Baltic and Polish Ambassadors to reaffirm U.S. support
for their nations.
I hope that we will also see strong, bipartisan support for
legislation that is being drafted by Senators Menendez and Risch, the
chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
That bill will impose severe, crippling economic sanctions on
[[Page S431]]
Russia for any further invasion of Ukraine. It would bolster similar
bruising sanctions drawn up by the Biden administration. It will ensure
that any Russian aggression against Ukraine or its neighbors will be
felt in Russia by their economy and their people.
I mentioned that my mom came to this country when she was 2 years
old, from Lithuania, in 1911. Her boat landed in Baltimore. At the
time, Lithuania was under the control of Tsarist Russia. It was a
brutal, repressive place.
After World War II, Lithuania became part of the USSR against its
will, another brutal and repressive regime. But in 1991, Lithuania
became the first Soviet Republic to declare its independence. In
response, Soviet tanks under control of Gorbachev rolled in to crush
the new Lithuanian democracy. I was there before those tanks arrived.
Their Parliament is called the Seimas. They had put sandbags around the
outside of it to try to stop the Soviets and their tanks. They took me
in the back, in a small room off to the side, and showed me their
arsenal. It consisted of about 10 rifles that had been borrowed from
farmers in the countryside to try to defend their capital, Vilnius.
Kids were assembled outside, praying the Rosary in the snow, lighting
little candles by the sandbags to show the solidarity of the people of
Lithuania, their determination to survive.
Soviet tanks rolled in, killed 13 innocent people, and injured dozens
more. But then, to the world's astonishment--and mine too--Prime
Minister Mikhail Gorbachev ordered the tanks to withdraw.
Later, another Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, supported Lithuanian
independence. Years after his death, Lithuania honored him with an
award for his commitment to Lithuanian statehood and bilateral
relations between Lithuania and Russia.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin understood that you can brutalize
a people who are determined to be free, but you can never defeat them.
Ultimately, freedom will win. It is a tragedy that Russian President
Putin cannot or will not learn that same lesson of history today when
it comes to Ukraine.
Seventy-seven years ago, an American marine born in Ukraine raised
the American flag on Iwo Jima. Today, a generation of young Ukrainians
raised in freedom are holding high the yellow-and-blue flag of their
own nation and saying: We too want to be free. Our message to them is
very simple and straightforward: You are not alone.
Like the shipyard workers in Gdansk and the other members of the
Polish Solidarity movement who helped bring an end to the decrepit and
brutal Soviet Union--like the 2 million Estonians, Latvians, and
Lithuanians who actually physically joined hands to defend freedom
across their nations--history and the free world will stand with you.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.