[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1687-S1688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Ukraine

  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I come here to speak briefly about the 
status of the peace talks led by the United States and President Trump 
involving both Ukraine and Putin.
  First, I want to thank President Trump for--there is one thing that 
President Trump has been consistent with: He hates war, and he tries to 
do everything he can to bring peace.
  We attempted--he has attempted that across the globe. He is working 
right now on trying to settle the situation in the Middle East, and we 
are trying to address the situation in Ukraine.
  Now, the response from Ukraine, after President Zelenskyy--let's keep 
in mind that President Zelenskyy, over the past week, has withstood 
attacks in Ukraine that have killed more people than are sitting up in 
the Gallery right now. So that is over the past couple of days, killed 
roughly twice as many people that are in the Gallery right now. Many of 
them civilians. I am not even counting any of the losses on the 
battlefield.
  Now, Vladimir Putin says he needs a little bit of time to assess to 
see. What part of a complete cease-fire is difficult to understand, 
right? Stop killing people. Ukraine said that they would. They are 
ready to sign a 30-day cease-fire now.
  Why do you think Putin's not ready to sign it right now? They have 
got to examine what a complete cease-fire means. It is because this 
liar and this murderer is trying to find ways to get an angle before 
they agree to any peace agreement.
  He would probably like a partial one because then he could lie about 
his orders to kill people and destroy Ukraine's infrastructure under 
the auspices of a limited cease-fire. If Vladimir Putin comes back with 
a proposed limited cease-fire, then you know he is looking to kill and 
destabilize Ukraine, Moldova, the West Balkans. It will be interesting 
to see how he weighs in on the vote today in Srpska where their 
parliament is voting to separate from BiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 
create a Russian separatist state in BiH.
  So my guess is he doesn't want to sign up to a cease-fire because he 
hasn't moved all the pieces around to make sure that he can still 
murder as many Ukrainians as possible during the supposed limited 
cease-fire.
  So I would say to the Ukrainian people and President Zelenskyy: Thank 
you--in spite of the fact that dozens of people have died this week, 
including civilians, at the hands of decisions made by Putin--thank you 
for being willing to lay down your guns and try to get to peace there.
  But the American people need to know Putin is a liar. He is a 
murderer. He hates democracy. He is not trying--the reason that he is 
in Ukraine now is because Ukraine is finally, after about 20 years of 
wasted time, that is in part because they had Russians and thugs 
preventing Ukraine from moving forward on the democratic reforms they 
know they need to do.
  Well, over the past 7 or 8 years, they started taking that seriously, 
and they are starting to make democratic reforms. They are starting to 
talk about maybe accession into the E.U., and that scares the hell out 
of Vladimir Putin because the last thing he wants is a successful 
former satellite of the Soviet Union demonstrating that democracy works 
and communism never has. That is what he is worried about. That is the 
provocative act that he used as a predicate to invade Ukraine and kill 
tens of thousands of people, including hundreds of thousands of his own 
soldiers. He is afraid of democracy proving to work in a society that 
was under the yoke of communism for decades.
  That is what this is about, folks. This is about good versus evil. 
This is about totalitarian versus this messy thing we call democracy.
  So if Vladimir Putin can't understand what an unconditional cease-
fire means, it is because he doesn't want to. It is because he still 
wants to find a way to murder and undermine democratic reforms and the 
people of Ukraine being finally free.
  So I do want to thank President Trump for taking the initiative, for 
showing Ukrainians a path. But I also want to make sure that this 
administration and everybody in America knows that Putin will not rest 
until his vision of communist fiat throughout this world is realized.
  We have to help Ukraine be free. We have to make Putin lose in 
Ukraine.

[[Page S1688]]

We have to recognize that North Korea, China, Iran are just chafing at 
the bit to see Putin succeed there so they can export their brand of 
terrorism and communism throughout the world.
  There is nothing redeemable in Vladimir Putin. He is an evil man 
responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people, nearly 
a million in the last 3 years in Ukraine alone. We all need to go in 
open-eyed and understand that this is the true nature of Vladimir 
Putin. And he cannot succeed in Ukraine.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.