[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 43 (Thursday, March 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1075-S1076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                UKRAINE

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine 
continues to escalate. Americans who walked by a newsstand on Monday 
were met with the wrenching picture of a Ukrainian family killed by 
Russian shelling, a mom and her two children struck down as they 
attempted to flee along a main evacuation route from Irpin to Kyiv, an 
evacuation route that Russia shelled.
  Yesterday, the world saw pictures of the devastation after a 
maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine--maternity hospital--fell 
victim to a Russian air strike.
  President Zelenskyy reported that there were children buried under 
the rubble--children.
  One newspaper reported:

       The bombing took place during what was supposed to be a 
     ceasefire in Mariupol so that civilians could evacuate. It 
     marks the fourth time a so-called `humanitarian corridor' out 
     of the city has failed because Russian forces opened fire.

  ``[T]he fourth time a so-called `humanitarian corridor' out of the 
city has failed because Russian forces opened fire.''
  ``Opened fire'' on civilians, on parents trying to save their 
children, this is what Russia is doing.
  The scenes in Ukraine are unreal. They are scenes that we thought had 
finally been left behind in the dust of European history: devastated 
cities, apartment buildings with their sides sheared off, the smoking 
ruins of homes and businesses, a school reduced to rubble, mass graves.
  In 2 short weeks, Vladimir Putin has wrought an unimaginable amount 
of devastation. The damage he has done will take years, if not decades, 
to rebuild. The scars may last much longer.
  And for what, Mr. President? For what? For one man's vision of a 
Russian Empire. Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine, and he is apparently 
willing to destroy Ukraine to get it--destroy Ukraine and devastate his 
own nation, because Russia is suffering too because of Putin's war of 
aggression.
  There are no smoking ruins of apartment buildings in Russia, but 
there is the senseless waste of so many young Russian lives, soldiers 
and conscripts sent to die in Ukraine for a war that is not their own. 
There is Putin's brutal crackdown on protesters and journalists, and 
there is the economic devastation his nation will suffer--is already 
suffering--as a result of sanctions and companies' decisions to pull 
out of Russia to protest its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Vladimir 
Putin is laying waste to two countries.
  These have been dark days for Ukraine, but the devastation in Ukraine 
has been met with determination. This is Ukrainians' fight, and they 
are not shrinking from it. The Washington Post recently reported that 
more than 66,000 Ukrainians who were outside the country have returned 
to answer President Zelenskyy's call to arms. That is 66,000 Ukrainians 
who could have sat in safety outside Ukraine who have returned to help 
defend their country.
  Outnumbered as they are, the Ukrainian people are standing fast, and 
they are slowing down and in many places holding off the Russians. 
Soldiers and civilians alike have taken up arms to defend their nation, 
and it is clear that the spirit of Ukraine, now roused, will not be 
quenched.
  No matter the resolve of the Ukrainian people, Ukraine cannot hold 
out alone. Without military, intelligence, and humanitarian support 
from other free nations, Ukraine may fall. We can't sit by and let that 
happen.
  Congress is currently considering legislation to send additional 
military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. I hope that we will be able 
to take a vote on this and very, very soon. As I have said before, the 
United States was too slow to send aid to Ukraine and sanction Putin in 
the lead-up to Russia's attack. We can't afford to make the same 
mistake again.
  I commend President Biden for doing the right thing this week and 
banning American imports of Russian energy. Every dollar we send to 
Russia to purchase energy is a dollar that Russia can use to prosecute 
its war in Ukraine.
  Now, we need to focus on developing our energy resources here at 
home, all of them--all of them, conventional and alternative--to ensure 
that our Nation never again has to depend on countries like Russia for 
essential energy supplies. We should also take this oil ban a step 
further by enacting the bipartisan Crapo-Wyden bill to suspend 
permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.
  The bill would also direct the U.S. Trade Representative to seek to 
suspend Russia from the World Trade Organization. A nation that flouts 
the rules and makes a mockery of diplomacy should not enjoy a seat at 
the table.
  I heard directly from President Zelenskyy in a Zoom call Saturday, 
and he made a powerful appeal for help from the West. Among other 
things, President Zelenskyy requested that we help close the skies over 
Ukraine.
  One solution that has been offered to help protect Ukrainian airspace 
is for Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia to provide their MiG-29 
jets to Ukraine. We need to do everything that we can to help Ukraine 
in this fight, including helping to pave the way for Ukraine to get the 
air defense resources it needs.
  Poland has stepped up and expressed a willingness to provide the 
MiGs, but we now find ourselves at a dead end as to how to facilitate 
the transfer to Ukraine. We need to find a solution, and I encourage 
the administration to find a way to safely navigate the logistics of 
such a transfer. After all that Ukraine has managed to do, it would be 
a tragedy to see the country lose its fight because the United States 
and other NATO countries could not agree on how to get the Ukrainians 
the resources they need.
  While we should be cautious about what Putin may choose to do as his 
losses grow and his off-ramps dwindle, the United States and NATO 
cannot allow Moscow to dictate our actions. To do so would not only be 
to surrender Ukraine but to give a green light to despotic governments 
the world over, from China to Iran.
  On Saturday, President Zelenskyy delivered an address to the 
Ukrainian people. ``Free people of a free country,'' he began. ``Free 
people of a free country.'' That is what Ukrainians are fighting for, 
to be a free people in a free country. And I think their fight is very 
close to the hearts of the American people, for after all, for what did 
our forefathers fight but to be a free people in a free land, to have 
the right to determine their own destiny and to live free of 
oppression?

[[Page S1076]]

  ``Free people of a free country.'' Long may the Ukrainians remain so.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, let me thank Senator Thune for his 
remarks.
  I would simply add that I hope we can all keep in our hearts the 
prospect that the Ukrainians might actually win this thing, given the 
success they have already seen, as long as they get adequate support 
from us and the world community.

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