[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 19, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           National Security

  Now, Mr. President, on another matter, over the weekend, Putin 
claimed electoral victory in a display of his regime's disdain for the 
Russian people. With a fresh 6-year term in office, he is on track to 
pass Joseph Stalin as the longest ruling despot in modern Russian 
history.
  For the past 2 years, Putin has sacrificed tens of thousands of its 
countrymen on the altar of an obscene neo-Soviet fantasy of Stalinist 
empire building. The human cost of Russia's war of aggression--to 
Russians and Ukrainians alike--is truly tragic, but this weekend's sham 
election came at a particularly critical moment in this conflict, and 
the Kremlin is showing its cards.
  Former Russian President Medvedev laid out exactly how Putin intends 
for his lawless conquest to end. Here is what he said:

       [The] entire territory [of Ukraine] is the territory of the 
     Russian Federation.

  As he sees it, Ukraine's ``complete and unconditional surrender,'' 
full ``demilitarization,'' and reparations to Russia would help forge a 
``benevolent consensus'' on peace.
  This is from a close ally of Vladimir Putin--the autocrat who said 
that ``negotiating with Ukraine just because it's running out of 
ammunition'' was ``ridiculous.''
  Russia has been showing us its intentions for over 2 years now, but 
for anyone who still struggles to see what is going on here, the words 
of Russia's leaders leave no room for doubt.
  As I said before, Putin and his allies are emboldened precisely 
because the West is hesitating--because America is hesitating. They are 
spelling out their true intentions because they sense that we might not 
have the resolve to actually resist them.
  Here is the truth: Russia is playing for keeps. It is set on 
subjugating a sovereign democracy--whole hog.
  There is every reason to believe this war ends with a negotiated 
outcome--most wars do--but it is absurd and self-defeating to insist on 
negotiations without preparing Ukraine to operate from a position of 
strength. Whether or when Putin ever decides to turn from his bid for 
total conquest to the negotiating table, it will be lethal Western 
assistance that determines what comes next.
  That is why what Congress does next will influence the eventual 
outcome of this conflict. What we do will determine whether an 
administration that wants to facilitate negotiations has the leverage 
to produce terms favorable to America and our allies. Our next move 
will either reaffirm America's global influence or kneecap--kneecap--
both Washington and Kyiv.
  Anyone who thinks starving partners of support is good diplomacy or 
politics needs only to look at the Biden administration's withdrawal 
from Afghanistan. If Congress does its job, it will be American weapons 
in Ukrainian hands--and stronger forces and defense industrial capacity 
here at home--that determine what conclusions the world draws from the 
first major land war in Europe since 1945--whether or not 
authoritarians conclude they can continue to redraw maps by force; 
whether or not America's top strategic competitor concludes that we are 
not prepared to defend our interests or equip our friends to defend 
ourselves; and whether or not the next Commander in Chief inherits an 
unfixable quagmire.

  Every day that the national security supplemental spends as a Senate-
passed bill and not a law is a day that America's adversaries smile. 
The decisions before Congress, both in annual appropriations as well as 
in the supplemental, are about more than Ukraine or Israel; they are 
about whether America has the will to defend our interests and uphold 
our influence.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic whip.