[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 59 (Monday, April 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1940-S1943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                UKRAINE

  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I come to the Senate floor again today 
to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. This is the eighth 
week in a row that I have come to the floor to talk about the illegal, 
totally unprovoked, and brutal Russian invasion of a sovereign 
country--their neighbor Ukraine--that only wants to live in peace.
  Over the weekend, all of us saw the brutality of what Russia is 
doing. We saw it up close through shocking videos and photographs of 
more than 100 civilians--not soldiers but civilians--lying in mass 
graves in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.
  Yesterday, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting specific 
atrocities, including rapes and executions.
  President Zelenskyy painted a vivid, heartbreaking picture this 
weekend when he spoke of ``civilians left on the streets with their 
hands tied behind their backs--killed execution style.''
  Here is one photograph of the shocking scenes that we saw over the 
weekend of civilians left in the streets as the Russians pulled out of 
Bucha, but it is happening all over Ukraine, these kinds of human 
rights abuses and war crimes.
  The administration, on Sunday, called for an investigation into the 
war crimes. That is good. Of course, these are war crimes. The United 
States must press other countries and must be persistent to ensure that 
a tribunal is established; that these war crimes are prosecuted; and 
that people are held accountable.
  Last week, Senator Dick Durbin and I, as cochairs of the Senate 
Ukraine Caucus, organized a meeting with four members of the Rada, 
which is the Parliament in Ukraine. We were also joined by the 
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova. These 
women told us of the human toll in this fight, which they described as 
a fight between good and evil, between tyranny and democracy. They 
talked about the fact that Ukraine can be a symbol for victory of the 
West if we support them more and if we help them win.
  One of the members of Parliament described for us the scenes from 
Mariupol--of the massive shelling and of the bodies lying in the 
streets there, too, because it is too dangerous to go out to recover 
them.
  One parliamentarian told us of being separated and of often being out 
of touch with her husband, who is in harm's way with the Ukrainian 
military, while she is here telling us these stories to encourage us to 
do more.
  One said that there are 30 Russian soldiers living in her 
grandmother's house. They forced her out into the bitter cold.
  They all told us, with anguish and urgency, of what needs to happen: 
more sanctions, more military assistance, more equipment.
  One of them said--and I thought this was well put--freedom has to be 
armed. Freedom has to be armed.
  I agree. I believe Ukraine can be victorious if the United States and 
our allies, especially the Europeans, help them to be victorious, and 
that means helping them more.
  They are fighting with heart, and although badly outnumbered, are 
making progress in key parts of the country. We have seen this in the 
region around Kyiv, where they are pushing the Russians out. This is 
the time to redouble our efforts to help ensure victory. It has now 
been 38 days since Russia's assault began.
  Russia is also now trying to redefine their objectives, saying that 
it was never their intention to seize Kyiv and the other major urban 
centers. Of course, we know that that is a lie. They tried very hard to 
seize Kyiv. They just weren't successful because the Ukrainians fought 
back so valiantly.
  So we need to watch the Russians' actions, not their words. Their 
actions in the south and in the eastern part of the country are that 
they continue to bomb, bomb, and bomb civilian targets.

  The most important reason Ukraine is winning these battles is, of 
course, the fighting spirit of the men and women of Ukraine--the 
patriots who are taking the fight to the Russians on the battlefield. 
They are well trained, and we in the West are part of that.

[[Page S1941]]

For the last 4 years, this body, the U.S. Senate, has provided funding 
to help train Ukrainians, and it has been very helpful. They are also 
motivated to defend freedom, to defend their homeland, to protect their 
families. There is no substitute for that kind of fighting spirit, and 
that is what the Russians are finding.
  We can also see the complete disregard for the rules of war by the 
Russian forces, including, most recently, through their actions in 
Mariupol. The words ``children,'' in Russian, were clearly emblazoned 
on a theater where young people took shelter. The letters were large 
enough to be seen from the sky to deter bombs. You probably saw that. 
They had the theater and then, on the outside, these huge words, saying 
``children'' in Russian. Yet the Russians bombed this theater. We have 
now learned, sadly, that there were more than 300 people killed, mostly 
women and children. They were trapped in that rubble and killed when 
the theater was hit by a Russian bomb.
  They continue to violate the terms of a negotiated humanitarian 
corridor to help civilians flee Mariupol by shelling these corridors 
with artillery as people attempt to flee. For the fourth straight day, 
Russia continues to block the Red Cross from reaching Mariupol to 
deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the city. We know the innocent 
people who are trapped there are dying of starvation and dehydration.
  As Russia escalates, civilian targets are being hit, in various 
cities, with cluster bombs, with vacuum bombs, even with the first-ever 
use of a supersonic weapon.
  Thousands of civilians have needlessly died in this senseless war. 
More than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes, and 
over 4 million refugees--almost all women and children and the 
elderly--have fled the country they love while their men have stayed 
behind to fight the invaders.
  Meeting with refugees a few weeks ago as they crossed the Polish-
Ukrainian border and hearing their stories was heartbreaking. They told 
stories of their trauma through their tears. Although it was 
heartbreaking for us to hear it, they didn't want our sympathy; they 
wanted our protection. They wanted us to help stop the bombing.
  The United States must stand with our allies against these 
atrocities. The President's recent speech in Poland underscored the 
stakes of this conflict if Russia wins. Frankly, it will mean the 
international order has failed, and more conflict, death, and 
destruction will follow. So this is a war in Ukraine, but the 
implications go well beyond the borders of Ukraine.
  Tonight, I, once again, offer some ideas about where we can go from 
here. Last week, I talked a lot about our top priority on the sanctions 
front needed to be cutting off Russia's No. 1 source of revenue that 
fuels the war machine, and that is the revenue that comes from Russia's 
energy sales.
  Energy is, by far, Russia's biggest export. It accounts for almost 
half of Russia's entire Federal budget. The revenues from oil account 
for between 40 and 50 percent of Russia's budget. Over the past year, 
the average oil revenues going back to Russia from their exports to the 
United States alone, just to the United States--and we imported 
relatively little compared to other countries in Europe, for instance, 
but it was $50 million a day we were sending to Russia.
  Under pressure from Congress, the administration reversed course and 
supported blocking Russian oil, natural gas, and even coal imports into 
the United States, thank goodness. It made no sense for us to be 
helping fund the Russian war effort, especially when we have our own 
resources here that are actually cleaner resources that we need to 
provide access to.
  I welcome the President's announcement in Poland last week of the 
creation of a joint U.S.-European Union task force to reduce Europe's 
dependency on Russian energy and strengthen Europe's energy security. 
That agreement is a good step forward. I am glad that we agreed to do 
that and got the Europeans to sign on to this agreement, but to make it 
work, to make it actually happen, we have got to support domestic 
energy producers here as a means of supporting our national security.
  Especially with this Russian invasion, the importance of the United 
States having an ``all of the above,'' robust approach to power our 
Nation, which includes fossil fuels, carbon capture technologies, 
hydrogen renewables, and nuclear power, cannot be overstated. As a 
practical matter, if we want to stop the revenues going from Europe--
the billions of dollars--to Russia to fund this war machine, we are 
going to have to change our policies here in America to provide more 
American liquefied natural gas to go to Europe. That is what the 
agreement calls for. But we are going to have to change policies to 
make that happen so that American energy can substitute for Russian 
energy. Unfortunately, we aren't off to a really good start of late.
  The President just sent his fiscal year 2023 budget request to 
Congress, and among the proposals are the elimination of important tax 
provisions used by our domestic producers, including oil and gas, like 
the deduction for intangible drilling costs, or IDCs, which allow 
natural gas and oil producers to deduct costs that are necessary for 
the drilling and preparation of wells. Taxpayers deduct their costs of 
doing business. IDCs are one such cost for energy companies. 
Shortsighted proposals like these will serve to discourage domestic 
energy production at a time when we need to encourage it to help in 
this war effort.
  Unfortunately, the administration has consistently sent a message to 
American energy producers that one of their goals is to phase out the 
use of fossil fuels and make it more difficult even now by stifling 
production. This rhetoric, combined with actions like canceling the 
Keystone XL Pipeline--billions of dollars have been invested in it; 
suspending new leases on Federal lands and waters; and redefining 
things like the waters of the United States, or WOTUS, to make energy 
permitting harder--these things have led to uncertainty and less 
investment in the oil and gas industry. We need to reverse that, again, 
along with renewables. There is room for all.
  An important initiative to build our domestic energy infrastructure 
is also part of the answer. We need more pipelines and we need more LNG 
export facilities, and that requires streamlining the Federal 
permitting process. Historically, it can take a decade or more for the 
Federal Government to issue permits to build pipelines. We have a law 
called FAST-41, which improves the permitting process for big projects 
by requiring Agencies in the Federal Government to work together to set 
out a plan and a timeline for permitting projects. It also creates what 
is called the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, which 
can resolve disputes over the permitting process and get a green light 
on a project much more quickly, whether it is oil and gas or whether it 
is renewables, solar, or wind. Let's use that process to provide this 
alternative to Russian energy. This doesn't mean not following the 
environmental rules. You follow them, but you get the permit far more 
quickly and with much less expense.
  We have to step forward and lead our European allies in doing all 
they can to provide substitutes to Russia's energy sector.
  Yesterday, the country of Lithuania became the first EU country to 
completely cut itself off from Russian natural gas. I applaud them for 
taking this strong action and hope other countries will quickly follow 
suit. Lithuania gets it. They know that as a country that is part of 
the Baltics in the region, they could be next.
  If we don't do this, we are not going to be able to tighten the 
sanctions on Russia because we will continue to send, again, billions 
of dollars to support the war machine.
  The ruble has recovered its value in part because Russia is bringing 
in revenue from its sale of energy. Shares on Russia's stock market are 
trading again. And Russia's VTB Bank remains open for business in 
Europe, where it has gathered billions of euros in deposits, mainly 
from German savers.
  Our sanctions have left Russia's biggest economic lifeline largely 
untouched, and that is energy sales to Europe. I know it is harder for 
them. They are much more dependent. That is why we need to help more. 
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is estimated that billions have 
gone back to

[[Page S1942]]

the Kremlin in energy resources and revenues from Europe.

  In addition to cutting off the natural gas and the revenue that fuels 
the Russian war machine, we need to tighten up bank sanctions as they 
relate to energy. Sanctions for energy transactions don't go into 
effect against Russia's biggest banks, including VTB Bank, until June 
24. That is simply too late. President Biden must lead the alliance to 
do what it takes to help Ukraine win, and the administration needs to 
make clear their objective is for Ukraine to win. Things like a June 24 
date for energy transactions are not acceptable.
  We need to close the loopholes in the sanctions and, of course, 
provide more lethal aid to Ukraine. We need blocking sanctions on all 
of Russia's finance and defense industry. We should expand full 
blocking sanctions on all the banks. I continue to call for revoking 
international tax and trade agreements that give Russia privileges not 
appropriate for a pariah country. Let's pass the end of PNTR--most 
favored nation treatment--for Russia here on the floor of the Senate 
this week. Let's get it done. Most Russian banks still have access to 
SWIFT when it comes to international energy transactions. That is not 
acceptable. This is a massive loophole that is sending blood money to 
kill innocent Ukrainians.
  This week, I will introduce legislation with Senator Ron Wyden of 
Oregon to disallow foreign tax credits for companies that pay taxes to 
the Russian Government. We have bipartisan agreement on policies to 
ensure American taxpayers are not subsidizing the Russian war machine.
  I believe we should seize, not just freeze, assets of Kremlin 
supporters. Last week, I introduced, with Senator Bennet of Colorado, 
the Repurposing Elite Luxuries Into Emergency Funds--RELIEF--for 
Ukraine Act to require the Department of Justice to direct any funds 
resulting from the disposal of seized Russian assets to support 
Ukrainian refugees and reconstruction. So let's seize these assets, 
like the yachts owned by the Kremlin supporters or by President Putin 
himself, and then take those funds and use them immediately to help 
with the humanitarian effort.
  Regarding military assistance, the Ukrainians have made it clear they 
desperately need more equipment, more munitions, and they need it now. 
In our meeting last week, the members of Parliament from Ukraine 
detailed what they need from us, and their list is not new. They said 
they need fighter jets. They need these MiGs. They appreciate the 
Stinger missiles that have been effective for lower altitude planes and 
helicopters, but they don't understand why NATO and the United States 
are blocking other Soviet-era military equipment to be able to help 
them.
  They want these surface-to-air missiles to be able to strike long-
range Russian artillery rockets and high-altitude rockets that are 
raining down on their cities and killing civilians with impunity. This 
is not too much to ask. We have to find ways to send them these long-
range air defense systems.
  Our Eastern European neighbors have S-300s and other systems the 
Ukrainians know how to operate. We may have some ourselves. Let's 
reposition our Patriot missiles in those countries in Eastern Europe so 
that they can then send their old Soviet-style systems to Ukraine that 
the Ukrainians know how to operate.
  It has now been weeks since our Secretary of Defense stood with our 
NATO ally Slovakia and the Slovakian Defense Minister said Slovakia was 
ready to transfer S-300 missile defense systems, which the Ukrainians 
can operate, ``immediately.'' Let's do it. Compared to what the 
Ukrainian forces have now, more S-300s could cover more ground and 
intercept incoming aircraft and missiles. The bureaucratic redtape 
delaying the S-300 transfer is costing innocent lives every day.

  We must also find ways to quickly provide Ukraine with more armed 
drones, such as the Turkish TB2 and one-use loitering munitions, which 
the Ukrainians know how to use and have been effective on this 
battlefield.
  Three weeks ago, it was announced that we were sending 100 so-called 
Switchblade loitering munitions. These are so-called suicide drones, 
one-use drones, but they can be used to destroy an armored vehicle or 
another target. One hundred will go very quickly. We should send more, 
and we should send bigger drones, which we have in our inventory. They 
could be effective against tanks and effective against ships.
  They have been asking for help across the board that is not yet 
delivered. They have been asking for tanks, more anti-ship systems to 
fend off missiles from the Black Sea, and more equipment to clear 
Russian mines.
  On tanks, they know how to operate the Soviet-era T-72 tanks that are 
in the inventory of many Eastern European countries. Let's facilitate 
those transfers.
  We can do more, and we should do more--not weeks from now but now. 
They are not asking for us to fight for them, but they are asking for 
us to provide them the tools to be able to defend themselves. There 
should be no gap in our weapons transfers, and we should continue to 
lead. We need not just organize our NATO allies, which we have done a 
good job at, in my view, but now help to lead our NATO allies in 
providing more support and coordinating the support from those 
countries.
  I also believe that both Ukraine and Georgia should be given what is 
called a membership action plan, which is the next step toward NATO 
membership. It doesn't make them parts of NATO, but, based on the 
actions of the Russians and the fighting spirit of the Ukrainians, I 
believe more strongly than ever that it would put Russia on notice that 
these countries are on the road to faster membership because of what 
Russia has done.
  Some may ask why a Senator from Ohio would care about what is going 
on in Ukraine. Well, we should all care. This is about the fight for 
freedom. This is where it is being engaged in our generation, in our 
time.
  I also happen to have tens of thousands of Ukrainians who call Ohio 
their home. These Ukrainian Americans are friends of mine. They are 
constituents of mine. They have been keeping me informed over the 
years. They have helped me to get more engaged in this issue. I have 
been to Ukraine six or seven times since 2014, when Ukraine made a 
decision to turn to us, to turn to democracy and freedom and free 
enterprise. But even if I had no constituents who were of Ukrainian 
descent, I would be standing here because this is the fight for 
freedom. This is our test. Are we going to stand against tyranny and 
for freedom at a time when these terrible atrocities are being 
committed?
  When I was on the Polish-Ukrainian border, I talked to a lot of these 
refugees, as I said, and through their tears, they talked about what 
was going on. They talked about their homes being destroyed, their 
apartments being destroyed, their friends or family members being hurt, 
some killed, the pain of being separated from their husbands and 
fathers, not knowing their fate back home. By the way, they all want to 
go home. They all want to go home desperately. They pleaded for us to 
do more to stop the missiles, and they all said: Please, protect the 
skies.
  They told us of this atrocity up close. In the midst of this 
atrocity, there are so many heroes in Ukraine who are stepping forward: 
the soldiers--professionals and civilians who have taken up arms--the 
doctors and the nurses, the firefighters, the volunteers who are 
providing food and water and blankets just to keep people alive. We 
pray for all of them. We pray for their families. Godspeed to them in 
their very simple quest: a battle for a free and independent country. 
They just want to live in peace.
  I will close with this thought. The Ukrainians can be victorious but 
only if we help organize other freedom-loving countries all around the 
world to support them. We must lead.
  One of the members of Parliament said it best, I think, when she said 
she hears all the time ``We are all Ukrainians. We are all 
Ukrainians.''
  I think that is a good sentiment. But she said: If that is so, then 
we must be like Ukrainians, meaning we must be brave, creative, and 
fast. Her point was: We need help; we need it now. Be creative. Figure 
out a way to get those tanks there, to get those more powerful drones 
there, to get the planes there that they need, to get the humanitarian 
assistance that they need desperately in Ukraine into these cities. Be 
brave. Be creative. Be fast.

[[Page S1943]]

  So I urge my colleagues and the administration and the world: Let's 
help Ukraine actually win this war. That is now possible. This is the 
time for us to redouble our efforts and to be brave, creative, and 
fast.
  I yield the floor.

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