    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 36 (Monday, February 24, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1305-S1306]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                    Ukraine

      Today, Mr. President, is also the 3-year anniversary of Russia's
    brutal, all-out invasion of Ukraine. Three years ago, Russian tanks
    were rolling toward Kyiv, and we all thought a total takeover of
    Ukraine by Russia was inevitable. As we know, instead, Ukrainians,
    fighting for their homeland, stopped, then pushed back the Russians,
    taking back 50 percent of the territory the Russians initially
    occupied.
      Today, Russia continues to gradually capture Ukrainian territory by
    force. With the help of North Korean soldiers, the Russian military is
    making small territorial gains but at an incredible cost in Russian
    lives and equipment. According to defense calculations, at the rate
    Russia is advancing in Ukraine today, it would take 83 years to reach
    Kyiv.
      Three years ago, we thought Ukraine didn't stand a chance against the
    mighty Russian military. Everyone assumed Russia would conquer all of
    Ukraine and do it very quickly. Three years in, the Russian military
    can't even conquer the territories in the east of Ukraine that Putin
    claims to have already annexed. In the areas that Russia has occupied,
    churches have been closed and evangelicals persecuted for their faith.
    Civilians have been tortured, killed, and tossed into mass graves.
    Children have been kidnapped--at least 20,000--and are being
    brainwashed to forget who they are and to adopt a Russian identity,
    where they now live.
      The Ukrainian people want peace desperately, and I hope it comes
    soon. The Ukrainian people want this peace because that is best for
    them as it is for the entire globe. But just like their Baltic friends
    before them, Ukrainians will never concede their sovereignty, and they
    will never give up on their countrymen who are currently under brutal
    occupation.
      The question is, What will make KGB Putin give up his imperial dreams
    of reestablishing the Soviet Empire?
      As we think about how we end this war in Ukraine, there is a lot
    going on right now. I don't think we want to forget that Putin has said
    very definitely, over the last 20 years in speeches, he wants to
    reestablish the Soviet Empire.

    [[Page S1306]]

      I think this citizen of the United States, this Senator, ought to
    consider that sometimes we get driven by ideological waves in that we
    tend to think we have got all the answers. We can remember that there
    were a lot of conservative Republicans during the 1930s who thought
    Hitler was on the right track to bring peace to the world. Then we had
    a lot of liberals at that time, even through World War II, who thought
    that Joseph Stalin's murderous regime was the answer to all of our
    questions and all of the problems that this world had.
      Now we have people who think Russia is somehow a good nation. They
    have institutionalized corruption in that country. They have murdered
    their political opponents. They imprison citizens for giving mild
    criticism to the country. They hold American citizens hostage--and
    hundreds of thousands of their people have been killed in this useless
    war.
      Conservatives imagine that Russia doesn't exist today as I just
    described, so they are willing to sit down with people who have no
    political liberties, no political opposition. And it seems to me this
    is something that this Senator would not do.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
      The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
    the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.