[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 1, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MR. PUTIN'S IMMORAL WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise with a very heavy heart and an 
overwhelming sense of sadness, anguish, and anger that should, however, 
be utilized to save lives.
  I traveled with the Organization of Security and Cooperation in 
Europe with my colleagues, Congressmen Cohen, Hudson, Wilson, Aderholt, 
and Veasey. We started out, most of us, on Sunday with the intent to go 
into the Ukraine region, and we did, all with optimism that this war 
would not be, that we could engage in discussions with parliamentarians 
and heads of state and that Putin would listen to reason of the 21st 
century.
  Upon arriving, we unfortunately heard the distorted, confused, and 
absolutely rejected message of the Soviet Union, and how the history 
suggests that countries like Ukraine were not independent, they were 
simply part of the old Soviet Union.
  Madam Speaker, you are aware of the fact that generations now living 
in democratic countries like Lithuania have no knowledge of the old 
Soviet Union. Congratulations to leaders like Gorbachev and Yeltsin who 
believed that their duty was to bring Russia into the 21st century.
  We remember the words of Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that 
wall. How in the world can Putin now come to represent that he, riding 
in on a fancy horse, maybe even shirtless, is going to now dominate 
violently, bringing these countries to their knees and for them to 
reject what they have come to love, and that is democracy?
  We continued in discussions--the Lithuanian Prime Minister, the 
Lithuanian President, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, and many 
others--that country, right in the eye of the storm, right in the 
potential of being one of those victims, yet Lithuania is a member of 
NATO protected by Article 5. But we thought because of their fears and 
their concerns, because of their sensitivity of the reckless and 
uncontrolled posture of Putin, who knows where he would go, Estonia, 
Latvia, Moldova, countries that are standing separately.
  He has already, as we were fully briefed, dominated and taken over--
it doesn't exist. I want the President of Belarus to understand that. I 
hope that he could stand up, but there were already 30,000 to 40,000 
Russia troops in his country bordering on Lithuania.

                              {time}  1030

  Even with that, we wanted to, as we have heard, give peace a chance 
and continue to press for peace even to the point where we went to the 
meeting where Finland, Sweden, France, Great Britain, Russia, and 
Ukraine were all there. We went to sit down at the peace table to try 
and argue. We arrived on Wednesday, and as everyone knows, in the late 
hours, early morning, from Wednesday to Thursday, Putin designed his 
own war. No vote by the Russian people. He designed a purposeless, 
senseless, and immoral war.
  I began to articulate how we should move quickly, financial sanctions 
that should immediately bring them to their knees, the SWIFT account 
being denied. On Friday and Saturday I asked for that. But I think the 
real issue is they should be brought to their knees. And then last 
Saturday I said that he should be charged as a war criminal. I am glad 
that the world criminal court, The Hague, is now opening an 
investigation on this desperate terrorizer, this killer.
  We cannot tolerate this kind of behavior. He indicated to the world 
that this was an operational war: I am going to be selective, I am not 
going after civilians.
  Madam Speaker, to the Nation and to the world: this is a face of a 
destroyed building reminiscent of World War II when civilian places 
were bombed and when thousands were lost. There is a person standing 
here. And this is dead children.
  Mr. Putin is a killer and a terrorist. And these are terrorists that 
are in Ukraine. We ask the world to continue to stand united, NATO and 
others, to be able to bring Putin to his needs financially and 
economically and as well on the world stage. He should be tried as a 
criminal. We need this war to end in a cease-fire.
  Madam Speaker, President Zelensky said: We are here.
  We stand with him. Ukraine is here. Glory to Ukraine.

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