[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 74 (Wednesday, May 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2297-S2298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise this morning to express concern for 
the people of Ukraine and the hundreds of millions who are going to bed 
hungry across the globe.
  Every day since that terrible day, February 24, we have watched in 
horror as Vladimir Putin and his army, his forces, killed innocent 
Ukrainians, over and over and over again like nothing--nothing--we have 
seen since World War II.
  Russian forces continue to besiege and shell Ukrainian cities like 
Mariupol, where over the last two months, civilians have lived in 
bunkers under perpetual fire. These are civilians in those bunkers.
  Only yesterday, 130 civilians managed to escape the battered Azovstal 
steel plant. Describing the last several months, one evacuee said:

       You can't imagine how scary it is when you sit in the 
     shelter, in a wet and damp basement which is bouncing, 
     shaking. We were praying to God that missiles fly over our 
     shelter, because if it hit the shelter, all of us would be 
     done.

  Sadly, 200 more Ukrainian civilians have been unable to evacuate, 
even as Russian forces began storming the steel mill just yesterday. So 
our prayers are with them and the remaining brave Ukrainian fighters 
continuing to hold on to this plant.
  But atrocities continue across all of Ukraine. In Donetsk yesterday, 
three civilians were killed on their way to collecting water--
collecting water--for their families.
  The United States, of course, must continue to help Ukraine fight 
against Mr. Putin and his forces. Mr. Putin is the incarnation of evil. 
It is as clear as any debate could be.
  The good news is, countries all over the world are unified against 
him. But we have a long way to go. Now, I and so many others across the 
House and the Senate strongly supported the appropriation that Congress 
made back in March--$13.6 billion in emergency appropriations to 
support Ukraine, and I stand by President Biden's recent $33 billion 
request to help Ukraine defend itself over the long term.
  Unfortunately, in that first number, the $13.6 billion, the good news 
is we had support for that in both parties. But I have to say for the 
record: Not enough support on the Republican side. Here in the Senate, 
31 Republicans voted against the $13.6 billion. And when you add up the 
Senate Republicans voting against the $13.6 billion in the spending 
bill and add them to the House Republicans, which is, obviously, a much 
bigger number, it is more than 200 Members of the Republican Party in 
the U.S. Congress voted against every single penny of the $13.6 billion 
for Ukraine.
  So I hope--I hope--when it comes to the $33 billion that I hope we 
will be able to pass--but I am sure it will be a number at least 
comparable to that. But whatever the number is for the people of 
Ukraine, I hope that we will get unanimous support in the U.S. 
Congress.

  I hope we won't see more than 200 Members of Republicans in the 
Congress voting against the people of Ukraine. This is not a difficult 
choice. You are either on one side or the other.
  I said Mr. Putin is the incarnation of evil--he is. The good news is, 
we have another choice. The other choice is Mr. Zelenskyy, the people 
of Ukraine, and those brave fighters in Ukraine. They are the 
personification of all that we claim to stand for when we talk about 
democracy.
  This isn't a moment to theorize or to talk about democracy in glowing 
terms without taking actions. They are doing the fighting on the 
battlefield. The least that we can do is vote the right way. That is 
the power you have as a Member of Congress. House, Senate, Democrat, 
Republican or Independent, you have the power to vote. And I hope that 
we will have unanimous support for the $33 billion that the President 
has asked for.
  Now, what will that funding entail? I won't go through all of it, but 
this funding will include $20.4 billion in additional security and 
military assistance for Ukraine. It is important to put that into 
context, so it is basically 20 of the 33 will be for security and 
military assistance. That is on top of what has already been 
appropriated just since the battle--the war in Ukraine started when 
Russia invaded.
  With President Biden's leadership and with a lot of support in the 
Congress, we have been able to provide billions of dollars just on the 
military and security assistance, not to mention the humanitarian 
support, the sanctions, and the unified approach that so many countries 
around the world have taken.
  But we have a lot more to do, and in my judgment, the $33 billion 
won't be enough. We are going to be back at it probably in a few months 
providing more. But at a minimum, we have got to get this done for the 
people of Ukraine. Part of that appropriation will be the replenishing 
of donated NATO weapons and equipment.
  This help, in total--all of this security assistance and other 
humanitarian support--will be critical to Ukraine's

[[Page S2298]]

ability to prevail--to prevail--over Russian forces through the summer 
and the fall. We must continue to provide all of the artillery, the 
anti-tank, the anti-air weapons, and air defense systems and other 
capabilities that Ukraine can use to block Russian authoritarianism and 
support the Ukrainian people. However, regardless of how much support 
the United States, NATO, and other allies and partners provide, we must 
remember that nothing we do--nothing we do--is comparable to the 
awesome sacrifice for freedom and democracy that Ukrainians are now 
making every day when they give their lives--they give their lives in 
this war--and have their own families shattered in the process.
  They are upholding--the people of Ukraine, those brave fighters on 
the battlefield every day, every week, every month now, those 
Ukrainians are upholding democracy, not just for themselves, not just 
for our country, but for the entire free world.
  There are, of course, other consequences to this war. The war has 
already driven over 13 million Ukrainians from their homes. These 
Ukrainians, who are either refugees going to another country or 
internally displaced within Ukraine but are outside of their homes, 
that number is equal to the entire population--roughly equivalent, 13 
million, to the entire population of my home State of Pennsylvania. 
Just imagine that, 13 million people being displaced. And, 
unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that will be the end.
  So I want to commend the European Union and Ukrainian neighbors in 
the region for their warm welcome to such an unprecedented refugee flow 
from Ukraine. Now, recently, just two weeks ago, traveling through 
Italy, Georgia, and France, I saw everyday Italians, Georgians, 
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen opening their hearts and their homes to 
Ukrainian refugees, not to mention the people of Poland, who have done 
so much, and so many others.
  Just one example, in Italy, faith-based nonprofits like Sant'Egidio 
that we had time to meet with on our trip have led the way in providing 
support to those in need.
  I also commend the administration's work to support these refugees 
across Europe and those remaining in Ukraine, much of that work funded 
by part of the $13.6 billion that Congress appropriated in March.