[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 113 (Monday, July 11, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3204-S3206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                UKRAINE

  Mr. PORTMAN. I also come to the floor today, as was noted, to talk 
about Ukraine. Russia's brutal assault continues. We must do more here, 
not just in the United States but around the world, to help Ukraine 
stand up to this brutality.
  This marks the 17th consecutive week in session that I have been on 
the floor to discuss the unprovoked illegal and deadly assault on the 
people of Ukraine.
  This invasion started 138 days ago, and it is more critical than ever 
that the United States and our allies support the efforts of Ukraine to 
defend itself against this assault.
  Let me just recap briefly the situation on the ground. A lot has 
happened since we talked a couple of weeks ago. First, here in the 
north, you can see the light blue, which is the Ukrainian advances. The 
Ukrainians have been successful in pushing back against the Russian 
offensive and taking back some of the territory around the city of 
Kharkiv. This is a critical area, obviously.
  Kharkiv is the sister city of my hometown, Cincinnati, OH. I was 
involved in that sister city arrangement 40 years ago, and it is a 
beautiful city. It has been almost flattened by the unending and 
barbaric attacks from Russia.
  In the outskirts of Kharkiv, again, Ukrainian forces are not just 
holding the line but also making gradual advances, same as through 
here, in Kherson. You can see there is, again, the light blue here that 
indicates where the Ukrainians have made progress here in the south.
  In the south and in Kharkiv, there has been progress made. This is 
very important in the south here because, as you know, Russia's goal is 
to try to shut off the entire Black Sea from Ukraine being able to 
access and, therefore, to continue to be one of the great exporters of 
the world. They have blocked any passage here of the ships that could 
be sending wheat and other grains to the rest of the world, including 
to Africa, where they are very dependent on Ukrainian wheat to keep 
people from starving, and yet the Russians are blocking these. But 
these cities are still in the control of Ukraine, and it is essential 
that continue, that Russia not create a landlocked Ukraine, which 
would, over the long term, be incredibly detrimental to the economy of 
Ukraine. It is vital that they do well there.
  I will say, though, that here in the east, it is a different 
situation. Here is Donetsk and Luhansk, the Donbas region. Here is 
where Russia has made incremental progress in the last couple of weeks, 
using, again, bombs and missiles that are flattening cities, killing 
civilians.
  This city of Severodonetsk, you have heard about--it is about right 
here--has fallen to the Russian forces after a months-long battle in 
the last couple of weeks.
  Its twin city, Lysychansk, which is also in this region, has also 
fallen, completing Russia's brutal conquest of what is called the 
Luhansk region. So Donetsk is still partly in Russian control--partly 
not. Luhansk is now in Russian control.
  But it is important to remember this: Russia paid dearly for every 
inch of Luhansk--by the way, much of which they flattened. They 
literally destroyed before occupying it. They lost troops, and they 
lost military equipment.
  But, significantly, because taking this area required massive amounts 
of resources from Russia, it drew attention away from the north--
Kharkiv, as we saw, and down here in Kherson.
  So it enabled these brave Ukrainian forces in these other places to 
make progress, not just to hold out against the overwhelming Russian 
onslaught but to make progress. The Russians have now announced they 
are in an ``operational pause,'' meaning they are claiming they are 
going to stop their large-scale offenses until their soldiers have 
rested.
  But as in the past, they can't be trusted. And, in fact, small-scale 
offensive missile strikes and rocket attacks continue all along this 
front line.
  We also must not downplay even what these sporadic strikes can do. 
Consider the tragedy that occurred about 2 weeks ago at a shopping mall 
in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. This is in central Ukraine, the 
area we just talked about.
  As more than 1,000 innocent Ukrainian civilians shopped with their 
friends and families at this shopping mall, a Russian strategic bomber 
launched a large Kh-22 missile. Now, this is a long-range, nuclear-
capable missile that was initially designed to destroy aircraft 
carriers--aircraft carriers--and they shot it into the middle of a 
shopping mall--turned it into a burning inferno. You can see here in 
this photograph.
  As a result of the explosion and the fire, 20 people were killed 
immediately, and more than 50 were wounded. Dozens more were declared 
missing. We are still getting the final numbers from this horrific 
tragedy, but it occurred during the summit of the so-called G7. That is 
the group of developed countries, larger economies--Japan, United 
States, and a few European countries--who were meeting to talk about 
the issue of Russia and Ukraine, among other things. The G7 rightfully 
condemned this atrocity as ``an abominable attack,'' an attack on 
civilians in a shopping mall.
  Just yesterday evening in Chasiv, Chasiv Yar, which is a residential 
town in eastern Ukraine, a Russian rocket attack struck an apartment 
complex and killed at least 15 people. More than 20 people are believed 
to be trapped in the rubble as emergency workers continue to work today 
to be able to free those who were trapped, to try to rescue innocent 
civilians who are under attack. Again, this is an apartment complex. 
People are trapped inside it, even as we talk.
  These barbaric, cowardly, long-range missile attacks on civilian 
targets have to be condemned by all of us, but they have to be stopped 
in two ways. One is by providing Ukrainians what they need in terms of 
anti-aircraft, anti-missile technology, but also by giving the 
Ukrainians the ability to use these longer-range missiles themselves.
  Right now, the Russians can sit back with impunity and launch these 
attacks. I join the people of Ukraine in mourning for the loss of these 
innocent civilians at the hands of Russia's cruelty. The terror, by the 
way, that is caused by these attacks is not an accident. It is part of 
the Russian war plan, to cause terror. Striking civilian targets is 
certainly one thing they are doing. Continuing to blockade those Black 
Sea ports I talked about is another one, increasing the economic cost 
of this war on the Ukrainian people.
  This is one reason why, by the way, a couple of weeks ago just before 
we left for the recess, we had a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee on a resolution to name Russia as a state sponsor of 
terrorism. That passed on a bipartisan basis, and my hope is that it 
comes here to the floor of the U.S. Senate, so we can all go on record, 
again, condemning what is going on over there and making it clear that 
Russia has become a pariah country, that this is not normal behavior, 
even in the tragedy of war.
  Striking civilian targets deliberately is, unfortunately, continuing 
day in and day out.
  In response to these brutal acts, the bravery and effectiveness of 
the Ukrainian defenders has been impressive but not surprising. Think 
about it. They are defending their families. They are also defending 
freedom, defending their homeland. The stakes of this war are high, and 
the fate of a sovereign country hangs in the balance. But I will say 
today, it is not just about Ukraine, as important as that is. It is 
bigger than that because, if President Putin is successful in taking 
more of Ukraine than he already controls--let's see the map again.

  If he does, in fact, expand beyond what he has already done, taking 
Crimea, taking this area of Luhansk and

[[Page S3205]]

Donetsk, taking the southern part of Ukraine, he is not going to stop 
there. I don't think anybody believes that or is so naive to believe 
that.
  In 2016, he stated, ``The borders of Russia never end.'' This was 
after he attacked Ukraine the first time. That was in 2016.
  In a speech claiming victory in May of this year, President Putin 
painted Ukrainians as Nazis. Remember, the President of Ukraine is 
Jewish. His family went through the ordeal of the Holocaust.
  But he was painting Ukrainians somehow as Nazis, saying that the 
invasion of Ukraine was inevitable and that he was forced into this 
conflict by NATO. NATO is not an offensive association; it is strictly 
defensive.
  The disinformation and lies also come from those around him. Vladimir 
Medinsky, one of President Putin's senior advisers, lamented that 
Russia's territory was greatly diminished from the time when Moscow 
controlled more than 14 currently independent nations, including 
Finland and Poland. This territorial retreat ``is not forever,'' he 
said.
  Europeans are waking up to this one-time unimaginable threat. 
According to a European Council on Foreign Relations opinion poll 
conducted 2 months ago, a possible Russian invasion of their nation is 
seen as one of the top three threats now by 53 percent of Swedes, 54 
percent of Romanians, and 40 percent of Germans. I was just in Romania 
a few weeks ago and got to hear from Romanians directly about this 
concern.
  I also went to Moldova, where there is even more of a concern because 
there is a Russian-occupied area called Transnistria right along their 
country. So what can be done to stop and reverse the Russian gains here 
in the east? The most important issue to me is to help these brave 
Ukrainians be able to defend themselves by giving them the weapons to 
level the playing field with Russia so they are not constantly 
outgunned.
  I have heard this from President Zelenskyy. We have all heard it from 
Russian forces that they are making some progress in the east because 
they have these weapons, these missiles, and the Ukrainians do not.
  We also heard about this from members of the European Parliament who 
came here to visit us about 3 weeks ago, came to the Ukraine Caucus. We 
talked about the caucus earlier. We also heard from some fighter pilots 
who came about 2-and-a-half weeks ago and met with our Ukrainian 
Caucus. What they need are the weapons to be able to respond.
  Their words have been explicit and direct: Russian artillery outguns 
theirs in terms of range, in terms of accuracy. They can sit back and 
fire on the Ukrainians' military and civilian targets, and the 
Ukrainians cannot respond. They cannot reach them. Ukraine needs 
advanced Western rocket artillery systems to even those odds.
  Thankfully, the United States and several of our allies have these 
exact systems. The UK has some systems. Germany has some systems. Over 
the past month, the United States has provided Ukraine with several of 
what are called HIMARS or high mobility artillery rocket systems.
  We have got hundreds of these in our inventory, by the way, and many 
of which are not with active units, in other words, they would be 
available. These are superior to Russian artillery in almost every way: 
mobility, reload time, accuracy, and most importantly, range. And yet, 
during Ukraine's hour of need, we continue to move too slowly.
  In the initial tranche of HIMARS, say about 6 weeks ago, only four of 
these units were announced. They are now in service, as we understand 
it, and they are working. Four more were announced a few weeks ago, and 
another four were announced this past Friday. Reports are these are 
still in transit. They are not yet being used to protect these 
Ukrainian civilians who are being bombed.
  They need more, and they need them now. Several have come from 
Germany and from the UK; but they need more, and they need them now.
  How many do they need? It depends who you talk to, but the Ukrainian 
military officials who have spoken out on this, who are the experts, 
say they need at least 48 of these systems to be able to begin to turn 
the tables in the east. The United States is now committed to 12; only 
4 are definitely in place. We need to move faster.
  Apparently, there was a lot of discussion within the Agencies, within 
the White House, about whether to do this or not; that is what took 
longer for these HIMARS to be approved. My view is we have had the 
dialogue. These systems are no more escalatory than Javelins were or 
other weapons. These are defensive weapons. These are the ability for 
Ukraine to defend itself, and I hope we can continue to provide them 
and move more quickly. They are working. They are proving their worth.
  Let me show you a photograph of what HIMARS can do to Russian 
logistics. These are images of Russian ammunition dumps exploding after 
reportedly being struck by missiles from a HIMARS system. Previously, 
Ukraine could not reach these munition dumps, but now with HIMARS, they 
can. Striking these ammo dumps can have a devastating impact on Russian 
forces.
  These are depots of weapons that are behind the Russian lines but in 
the country of Ukraine. And, finally, they can access them. Striking 
them is going to have a devastating impact. According to Serhii Kuzan, 
the chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center in Kyiv, 
Ukraine has used HIMARS rockets to now destroy 20 warehouses of Russian 
artillery ammunition.
  As I said earlier, Russian soldiers are currently in an ``operational 
pause'' to recover and resupply before future offenses, so they say, 
but they cannot resupply without ammunition.
  So destroying these hubs will set Russia's timetables back and buy 
Ukraine more time to prepare and to receive more Western military 
equipment like the HIMARS.

  These pictures are exactly the proof we need to show that what we are 
sending is now making a difference. Imagine what they could do if they 
had enough to be able to truly push back.
  These HIMARS systems arrived in Ukraine too late to avoid some of the 
damage that we have been talking about today and, certainly, some of 
these cities, like Severodonetsk we talked about that has now fallen to 
the Russians or Lysychansk, which has fallen to the Russians.
  They arrived too late for the thousands of brave Ukrainians who were 
killed and wounded defending those cities. If we don't act quickly, 
then future HIMARS rockets will arrive too late to save more Ukrainian 
citizens, more Ukrainian soldiers, more Ukrainian innocents. Time is of 
the essence, and I urge the administration not to delay.
  Again, I am pleased they are getting those weapons in. I wish it had 
been sooner. And we now have to encourage more and faster.
  When people, understandably, ask about our support for Ukraine, our 
taxpayer-funded aid to the tune of billions of dollars, they deserve to 
know that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely.
  In my view, that means spending it on weapons like HIMARS that are 
actually making a difference on the battlefield. I believe the aid that 
we and our allies are providing is a wise investment that will pay 
dividends over time, but let's provide them the right aid.
  Ukrainians are defending their country with bravery and skill, 
exceeding all expectations, and they are ensuring that their country is 
not being handed over to President Putin. We have to assure them that 
the United States and their allies are doing all we can to help them 
save their country.
  We know that making any territorial concessions to Russia would only 
embolden President Putin and other future would-be conquerors. The 
lesson that they would learn is that with enough patience they can wear 
down the West and get what we want.
  So I was pleased to see 2 weeks ago, when the leaders of the so-
called G7 countries--again, U.S., Japan, European countries--stated:

       We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, 
     military, and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for 
     as long as it takes.

  We saw how territorial concessions in the late 1930s only increased 
Nazi Germany's appetite, and this is clearly no different.
  Russia's goals are not limited to just the Donbas or southern 
Ukraine. President Zelenskyy clearly understands this. He said to CNN 
recently:


[[Page S3206]]


  

       Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept 
     that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land.

  I could not agree more. In fact, it goes beyond Ukraine. President 
Putin will conquer as much of the former Soviet empire as we let him. 
We must stop him here in Ukraine.
  With regard to sanctions, the EU is still using Russian oil and gas, 
sending roughly $870 million a day to help fund the Russian war 
machine.
  We have the capacity here in the United States to help our partners 
and shore up our domestic energy production--not only important for 
Americans to get the cost of gas down with more supply, but also 
critical for our allies.
  We are seeing some small progress, but much more needs to be done to 
reduce this reliance on Russian energy. By the end of this year, we 
expect coal and oil to be phased out. The United States must do its 
part and increase our energy production, while at the same time be a 
leader in developing new energy technologies that can help reduce 
emissions and increase national as well as global security.
  This is not either or. It should be all of the above. We should be 
producing what we need right now to ensure that Europe can stop its 
dependency on Russia and sending this almost a billion dollars a day to 
fund the war machine, but at the same time we should be producing 
energy from all sources, including green energy, including nuclear 
energy.
  And like sanctions and military aid, when the United States leads, 
the world tends to follow. But most importantly, our allies and enemies 
watch us.
  This is true with regard to a revived NATO right now. In fact, in the 
wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as we talked about earlier, both 
Sweden and Finland have applied to join NATO, shrugging off long 
histories of neutrality.
  In Brussels, NATO Ambassadors, on July 5, signed the accession 
protocols that put them a step closer. Now, all 30 NATO nations will 
review their applications for ratification. Canada, Estonia, Denmark, 
Norway, and Germany have already ratified Finland and Sweden's 
applications. Let's join them. Let's do it this week. Let's do it 
through an expedited procedure and just get it done. I look forward to 
voting in favor of those applications in committee and on the floor.
  We cannot forget that Russia has claimed this war started because 
Ukraine wanted to join NATO. Of course, they did. They reaffirmed that 
in 2014 when they threw off a corrupt Russia-backed government. They 
are looking westward to Europe, to us, to freedom, to democracy. They 
want to join NATO and the European Union and form ever-closer bonds 
with the transatlantic community.
  I have long believed that NATO deserved a NATO membership action plan 
to provide a clear path to eventual NATO membership, and they have made 
significant progress in doing this. This brutal invasion is just 
Russia's latest attempt to throw that progress off course. We must not 
be deterred.
  Now, as we enter the fifth month of this war--I have come down here 
every week to talk about it--we have seen the resilience and the 
fortitude of the Ukrainians. Even as their brothers and husbands go to 
fight for the homeland, the women of Ukraine are incredibly brave as 
well, and I have seen them at the border with Poland; I have seen them 
at the border with Moldova; and I have seen them as they come to the 
United States and talk about what is going on in their country. They 
know this is the fight, during our generation, where democracy is on 
the line. How this war develops will have far-reaching impact on the 
entire globe.
  In Ohio, I see this all the time. A couple of weeks ago, I was in 
Cleveland for what was called ``Amplify the Voice: A Benefit Concert 
for Ukraine.'' We had 1,000 people come to this beautiful Severance 
Hall, which is the music center for the Cleveland Orchestra, and one of 
the premier orchestras in the world, by the way. They made the center 
available to the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus to perform to, again, an 
audience of people who were Ukrainian Americans but also from every 
nationality, particularly the nationalities communities, as we call 
them in Cleveland, which would be people from Eastern and Central 
Europe who understand the importance of this fight. So Lithuanians were 
there; Poles were there; Romanians were there; Hungarians were there--
people from all over the region.
  The concert raised funds for the United Ukrainian Organizations of 
Ohio's Fund to Aid Ukraine. They are doing great work.
  It is amazing how many people who spoke who are doing something to 
help with regard to Ukraine--medical supplies, armored vests, helping 
with regard to emergency supplies just so people can have enough food 
to get by when they are subject to some of these bombings we have seen 
today.
  We also heard a beautiful concert. Ukrainians of all stripes 
certainly understand what is going on and why this is so important and 
have for a long time because they know what it is like to live under 
the thumb of authoritarianism. They broke away from it many times 
during their history and again more recently in 1991 and again in 2014.
  I was in Ukraine after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, where 
Ukrainians decided for themselves that they wanted to turn away from 
Russian domination and turn to us.
  I believe we can help them win this time. I am confident of it. That 
is why I have introduced a bipartisan resolution with Senators Manchin, 
Murkowski, and Hassan to recognize the U.S. commitment to help rebuild 
Ukraine. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, more 
than 7 million civilians have fled their homeland, and there has been 
about $600 billion worth of damage to Ukraine's infrastructure.
  By the way, those refugees, those civilians whom I have met--they all 
want to go home. And in a sense, it is not perfect to call them 
refugees because they are really just Ukrainians who are temporarily 
forced to leave their country, but they all want to go home and rebuild 
Ukraine.
  It is not just a human toll we see captured in images and videos, but 
people's homes and livelihoods have vanished overnight. So they are 
going to need help. The countries of the free world are with us, and we 
have to be sure that they step up, including some countries that were 
less comfortable providing military assistance that are providing more 
monetary assistance--some of those countries are really going to need 
to step up in terms of helping to get Ukraine back on its feet.
  Now is not the time for us to back away. We have to be able to win 
this militarily and then begin the rebuilding. It is not a time for us 
to be tentative or equivocal. At this critical juncture, let's lead our 
allies to provide what Ukraine needs to protect their homeland and to 
defend democracy.
  I yield the floor.

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