[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 214 (Thursday, December 18, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H6099-H6105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LIBERTY VERSUS TYRANNY
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Kaptur
of Ohio was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, tonight it is a great honor to gather with
our
[[Page H6100]]
dear colleagues to focus on a modern-day conflict that will have major
implications for this country and the world in the days and years to
come.
The United States, for over a century, since our hard-fought
victories with Allies during World Wars I and II learned the hard way:
Isolation is not in our Nation's security interest.
Isolation is not in our Nation's security interest.
Our Nation is not the most populous nation on Earth, with 340 million
people. However, in every era it seems the constellation of
dictatorship begins to upset world order. These aggressors invade
smaller nations first to conquer more territory and for their own
narrow self-interest.
Dictatorships in today's world include Russia, with 140 million
people; China, with 1.5 billion people; Iran, with 92 million people;
and North Korea, with 26 million people.
This group of nations is a developing spiderweb of tyranny with four
times the population of the United States. Thus, alliances with free
nations matter. That is why Canada, Australia, and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organizations matter. Only together with Allies can the free
world offset predatory dictatorships.
Following World War I, slowly and at great cost, a constellation of
Allies began to emerge. Leaders of surviving nations created what has
come to be called the free world, but this alliance of liberty was very
hard-fought, and it champions freedom, not dictatorship.
Foundational is the rule of law with institutions of justice,
ensuring individual rights, not repression by dictators or conquest by
aggressor, thugs, and murderers.
Our Nation did not seek to be leader of the free world. Rather, our
forebears grew this association with the realization that cataclysmic
wars were not in the interests of humanity nor the United States of
America.
President Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations after World
War I, which three decades later transformed into the United Nations,
an institution to collectively assemble world leaders to promote
understanding and peace so as to avoid war.
Civil and political leaders of our Nation in both major political
parties, though reluctant to assume leadership in such a daunting
undertaking never before in the world, were determined to build a world
of law, not conquest. The goal of lasting peace outweighed their own
self-interest.
A short distance away from our Nation's Capitol rests the national
World War II Memorial. It was dedicated in 2004 to the Allied victory
in World War II. Over 100 million people, nearly one-third of our
population, has now visited that hallowed site. This monument
represents the 20th century's greatest achievement, the victory of
liberty over tyranny.
The monument stands as a timeless reminder of the moral strength and
power that can flow when free people are united and bond together in
the common, just cause of liberty itself.
Following the horrific great power wars of the 20th century, across
Europe alone are lain the bodies of 500,000 U.S. veterans who rest in
military cemeteries and fields from World Wars I and II. From Flanders
Fields to Normandy, their enormous sacrifice, along with the millions
of veterans who returned home, bequeathed to us the moment to build the
umbrella of alliances to push back tyranny. Extending liberty and
achieving democratic governance peacefully served as examples to other
nations. What the World War I and II generations yielded for us has
been the longest era of peacetime among great powers in the history of
the world--until now.
Not only is Russia at war in Europe, but the United States of America
is acting peculiarly and dangerously out of step with our forebears'
resolve.
{time} 1550
Let me just, for a moment, focus on Vladimir Putin and his evil
aspirations as dictator of Russia. Let us recall Putin's imperative is
to reconstitute the Soviet Union that collapsed in 1991 of its own
criminality and dysfunction. Its border extended across 13 time zones
then, all the way through most of Germany. Through force, Putin aspires
to rewrite the structure of Europe again and end democratic practice
across the Continent.
Meanwhile, the United States appears absent. Liberty is under threat,
and America seems to be wavering on the sidelines, playing off liberty
and dictatorship.
The increasingly collaborative coalition of Russia, Iran, North
Korea, and China, the spider web of modern tyranny, are enemies of
liberty. See it. They collude to upend American and global security.
Chancellor Merz of Germany, a NATO ally, recognized this reality when
he recently stated: ``The threats are real. We are not at war, but we
no longer live in peacetime.''
Ukraine has become the front line for liberty's fight in our time and
generation. See it.
In 2014, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, an ally of
the United States. Together with our European allies, we partnered to
achieve Ukraine's accession to the European Union of free nations, and
clearly Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 just after Russia's puppet
dictator who had become President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was
driven out of that nation after his treasonous betrayal of the
democratic aspirations of the free people of Ukraine.
He stole millions and committed crimes against its freedom, and he
found his way back to Moscow. Vladimir Putin knew his control of that
puppet and of Ukraine had been thwarted, so he chose to invade Ukraine
starting in 2014 against all laws of diplomacy. Putin snuffed out
liberty in his own country, and now he intends not just to end liberty
in all of Europe, but he seeks to replace it with tyranny that traces
its bloody lineage across centuries of Russian aggression and murder of
innocents.
There can be no compromise with Putin. He violated the Budapest
Memorandum, which allowed Ukraine to prosper, starting in 1991 after
the fall of the Soviet Union, when it promised to let all nuclear
weapons be removed from Ukraine with the promise that they would not be
invaded, that others would protect them.
Russia signed that agreement. The United States signed that
agreement. That agreement has been violated. Why should we trust Putin
now, when he couldn't even keep his word on the Budapest Memorandum?
Let us not forget the great betrayal that allowed Putin to invade
Ukraine in the first place. As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a
newly independent Ukraine had become the third largest nuclear power in
the world. However, as a responsible nation, Ukraine signed the Treaty
on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the behest of the United
States of America and the demand of Russia. In exchange, the security
of Ukraine was to be guaranteed under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum
signed by our country, Russia, and Ukraine.
However, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 after his puppet was driven
out. Russia always betrays its commitments. Look no further than the
decades before when the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement during World War
II was signed and then violated and Poland was invaded. We must not
betray our commitment as leader of the free world to Ukraine's liberty.
Ukraine is fighting valiantly against Russia. It is holding the line
at the front. The Ukrainian people have fought so astoundingly until
the current President and his party here in Congress decided not to
send the funds to allow Ukraine to procure the weapons it needs. There
has been a pause during this year, which makes it harder, but the
Ukrainians have held the front.
Ukraine has one time zone and encompasses a landmass less than 3
percent the size of Russia's vast territory which stretches across--are
you ready?--11 time zones. They have enough. They ought to deal in
their own country. Russia's population equals four times as many people
as Ukraine's.
Putin was the aggressor. He invaded, as I said, in 2014, and he has
kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Why? It is because
in Russia, the birthrate is going down. He has murdered tens of
thousands of Ukrainian civilians. He has reinstituted the gulag system
of prisons to torture Ukrainians. He has attacked religious communities
and buildings, broken families apart, murdered and tortured scores of
[[Page H6101]]
hundreds of clergy, killed Jehovah's Witnesses and any other religion
that attempts to prosper in that part of the world, and summarily
executed prisoners of war and civilians alike.
This is what Putin promises the rest of Ukraine and our NATO allies,
should we let him succeed in Ukraine. See it. See it for what it is.
Russia's history is marked by repressive expansion and murder
throughout the centuries. There is no liberty nor desire for any
liberty. Russia kills at will.
Freedom advocate Alexei Navalny, a Russian, was imprisoned last year
and left to die in a frozen Arctic prison. Putin's goons murdered a
young Ukrainian journalist almost 30 years ago when Ukraine became
free. Why? It is because Gongadze was telling the truth about the
corruption and the underhandedness of Russia inside of the free
Ukraine. He was killed and then buried with his head in the ground and
his legs in the air right before people would enter the town just to be
a lesson to behave yourself and don't ever, ever put a word in a
publication against Vladimir Putin.
Putin murdered countless Catholics, Mormons, others who wanted to
freely practice religion in that part of the world. Why were they
murdered? It was because they weren't Russian Orthodox adherents.
If Putin is permitted to conquer Ukraine, he will not stop there.
This is not speculation. This is history. We already see Russian troops
concentrated at the borders with Baltic States. They are hitting the
fly zone in Poland, the border, Finland, Russian violations of NATO
airspace and territorial waters.
A Polish diplomat once advised me: If you pay no attention to foreign
affairs, then foreign affairs will find you. What a true statement that
is. Surely, the Poles know.
America has tried in the past to stick its head in the sand. That
doesn't work. Isolation doesn't work. Partnership works. America can
repeat the mistakes of the 1920s by withdrawing our support, but we
have already lived through that. We don't want to go through that
again. Inevitably, that myopia will force the free world to pay a
higher price for freedom as tyranny deepens its roots in the world. On
the other hand, America can take a stand now to provide further
assistance for Ukraine to advance liberty for this new generation.
Remember, only 20 percent of the world is free now, according to
Freedom House's Freedom Index. This means that 80 percent of the world
lives under some form of tyranny. We are very privileged in our country
if we can hold it.
In our privileged place in the world, America cannot forget that
around our globe and throughout history, liberty is extremely rare and
precious and utterly vulnerable.
The Trump administration is failing to meet the moment. My dear
colleagues will talk about this in just a moment, but what this
administration is doing is just not ignoring the problem. They are
actively complicit in tyranny's march across Europe.
{time} 1600
This administration's new and adolescent national security manifesto,
as they call it, is a retreat.
During his campaign, President Trump frequently repeated that he will
end the war in Ukraine on day one. That surely didn't happen. One year
into his return to office, the war in Ukraine rages on, and his actions
have been favoring Russia's dictatorship.
In February and March, President Trump made his first real effort to
negotiate, but what is he negotiating? Not liberty. Ukraine's President
Zelenskyy came to the table and agreed to President Trump's mineral
rights deal.
Trump responded to Russia's growing strikes but granted Putin several
weeks' warning to end the shooting or face new sanctions. He did not
implement the sanctions, even as Ukrainians were being murdered every
day.
In August, President Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for
dictator Putin to step foot in the land of the free during his visit to
Anchorage, Alaska. Putin conceded nothing then; he concedes nothing
now. Trump whined at Putin and again threatened sanctions.
Finally, in October, the President did sanction two large Russian oil
firms, Lukoil and Rosneft, but then reinvigorated a negotiating process
with several decidedly Kremlin-friendly provisions, even as Putin
showed no signs of compromise.
Now, 4 months later, we are waiting on the Trump administration or
Republicans in Congress to move additional sanctions. Up at the desk,
we have a discharge petition to move a bill to enforce sanctions on
Russia. We only need 2 more signatures to get to 218.
Where is the majority in this House? Two more signatures on the
discharge petition to move Russian sanctions forward--liberty is
calling. Can you see it? Can you hear it?
This October, the Trump administration started issuing Russia's
threats to Ukraine for Putin. The Russian-drafted 28-point peace plan
asked Ukraine not to negotiate peace but to capitulate.
They cited a recent corruption scandal in Ukraine, not for what it
is--Russian interference and corruption in Ukraine through their
emissaries--but as evidence that Ukraine is weak and must surrender.
This is a Russian infiltration of Ukrainian institutions that has
been going on for centuries, and it has plagued Ukraine from the first
day it became free, in 1991. Ukraine has had to build a nation on the
corruption and infiltration of the corrupt, calculating, interfering
Russian regime.
Then, just last week, the Trump administration stood shoulder to
shoulder with the Russian dictatorship. Never in my life did I imagine
I would live to see the day when the United States of America, as a
founding member of NATO and the United Nations, would vote with the
dictatorships of the world. This happened on December 10, 2025, when
the United States joined the dictatorships of Russia, Belarus, China,
North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Niger in a 97-8 vote to oppose the
United Nations resolution that aimed to strengthen international
cooperation and coordination of efforts among nations.
This shameful vote of 97-8 does not express the values of the United
States of America. It does not express the values of the American
people, who place liberty above all. We value our closest allies,
especially when Europe is at war. We don't side with the dictators.
The Trump administration publicly holds that the ultimate goal is
peace. I agree. Everyone wants peace, except Putin. Do you not see it?
Putin doesn't want peace. He wants Ukraine. The Ukrainians prove to us
every day that liberty is worth fighting for. We best not forget that
here in America.
Frankly, I haven't found anyone in the Trump family who has ever
fought for the cause of liberty. There is no record of military service
or public service in his family's history. In fact, Trump famously
avoided service in Vietnam by faking bone spurs.
No one in my family ever had that luxury. They fought for over 100
years for this country, and we are proud of their service for liberty.
What seems clear to me is that too many people, like Putin, judge
others by the weight of their wallet rather than the weight of their
conviction for liberty.
As peace negotiations ensue this weekend in Miami, let us pray that
the negotiation is not about squeezing every business deal out of
Ukraine for The Trump Organization. That outcome is not in America's
interest.
Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two former real estate businessmen
from New York, should negotiate peace and liberty, not business deals
for themselves or the President they serve, business deals of a
Russian-occupied Ukraine.
The free world must push back Russia's aggression and greed, or
Putin's appetite will grow to spread Russian repression across all free
peoples, which he has been trying to do since the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1991.
Our late colleague John Lewis observed that freedom is not a state.
It is an act. It does not sit on the floor but must be elevated by the
steady diligence and attention of citizens who sacrifice to remain
free. Liberty is not simply bestowed upon a people but fought for and
defended.
History instructs us. In the 1770s and 1780s, a revolutionary
generation of men and women rose up to secure liberty across 13
otherwise disconnected coastal Colonies here on the American continent.
[[Page H6102]]
Roughly 80 years later, a subsequent generation was called upon to
fight and die in America's internal great war for liberty, the American
Civil War, still our most costly war, with over 600,000 deaths. That
generation ended the original sin of slavery and extended the hope of
liberty across the American continent.
Then, in the 20th century, generations rose to the renewed call for
sacrifice. Called the Greatest Generation, I call them the most
unselfish generation. They fought, died, and successfully preserved
and extended liberty here at home and to subjugated people around the
world. They did it for us.
Americans believe that the history of their struggle against global
tyranny ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the fall of the
Communist Soviet Union, yet today, that history is still being written.
Free nations face not a new enemy but an old one. It is our turn now.
Our free world must never play footsie with an axis of dictatorships
like Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China to unleash their aggression
on our world again. How not only stupid that would be, but how un-
American.
America's foreign policy must promote liberty, not bow to tyranny.
Free nations must support those who are willing to fight and die for
liberty around our world, and Congress must ensure our Nation is always
ready.
Our National Defense Authorization Act just passed, providing for
military readiness for our Nation as well as assistance to Ukraine to
ensure NATO's eastern flank is secure and Vladimir Putin moves back his
troops inside his own country. He has plenty of it that he needs to
attend to.
Congress can do more by passing a discharge petition that has been
sitting in the well of this House since July. It would unlock the most
significant legislation introduced in this Congress to place economic
sanctions on Russia for its war crimes against Ukraine. Our petition
needs only two more Member signatures to bring forward the vote to the
floor. Every Democrat and two Republicans have signed thus far.
{time} 1610
In our country, we must defend liberty first, last, and always, and
it must never accommodate dictatorships.
We are reminded of this by this astounding visionary poet of Ukraine,
who on Christmas, December 25, 1845, penned the following words about a
country that, at that point, was only imagining through its greatest
citizens a future that they could not live in their own lifetime.
Mr. Speaker, in closing my formal remarks tonight, I will quote the
poet laureate of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko, who said:
O bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrant's blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word,
Remember also me.
Mr. Speaker, he was so prescient. He was so prescient.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi),
the Speaker Emerita of the House of Representatives.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I salute Marcy Kaptur and the Ukrainian
Caucus for inviting Members to come together to raise concerns, to
speak frankly about the need for strong sanctions on Russia, and to
insist that any peace must be just, durable, and centered on the
Ukrainian people themselves.
Mr. Speaker, for nearly 4 years, the people of Ukraine have stood on
the front lines for freedom, defending their democracy, their
sovereignty, and their right to live in peace on their own land. In
fighting for democracy, they are fighting democracy writ large.
Congresswoman Kaptur spoke beautifully, historically, geographically,
and chronologically in every way about placing this conflict in time
and place. I want to pick up on two parts of it in the time that I
have.
In the conversation about peace, we hear people talk about Ukraine
giving up land. What we are saying to Ukraine is that Russia came in,
stole their children, as Congresswoman Kaptur mentioned, tens of
thousands of their children. They took them into Russia. Mr. Speaker,
imagine if that ever happened to your family.
Secondly, they raped the women. They raped the women. Sometimes they
did it in front of the children and sometimes in front of their
parents.
I said to some Russian friends: Isn't it sad how the Russian troops
have become brutes and are raping women as a weapon of war to
demoralize the people of the country?
They said: Make sure you understand one thing. Russian soldiers
follow orders. They are doing that because that is what they are told
to do.
In addition to that, we have seen evidence of their killing families
in front of family members in such a brutal way. What a ridiculous
request: Kidnap our children, rape our women, kill civilian families,
and ask us to give you land in return.
The other thing we sometimes hear people say in our country is: Why
should we pay all that money when, in fact, we have needs in our own
country? I don't think people realize that 90 percent of the security
that we send to Ukraine is spent--of the 100 percent, 90 percent is
spent in the United States, creating jobs in our country.
Secondly, there are other forms of humanitarian assistance. Across
the board at least 60 percent of all that we spend on Ukraine is spent
in the United States of America, creating jobs.
Again, Congresswoman Kaptur spelled it out. I mean, some things bear
repeating. She said it so beautifully. This is awful. Mr. Speaker, who
do you trust? Who do you trust?
The Congresswoman spelled out very clearly the ridiculous notion that
Ukraine should trust us--the Russians after the Budapest Agreement.
Give up your nuclear weapons, and we will come to your aid, should you
need that.
Forget about it now. Ukraine has been treated with great disrespect.
Its people have just been subjected to such horror, and they have
fought valiantly. The least we can do is the sanctions. What we should
be doing in this House, which has overwhelming bipartisan support in
support of the people of Ukraine, is to get some more people to sign
the discharge petition.
I thank Congresswoman Kaptur for her relentless, persistent,
dissatisfied advocacy for Ukraine and the fact is we know, those of us
who have visited there: If Putin takes Ukraine, what country is next?
That is what we hear, the fear we hear from people in the region.
Do they trust Putin? The only person who trusted Putin was President
Trump. I don't know what that is about. I know I had a picture, coming
out of one of his Cabinet meetings, I pointed to the President, and I
said: I am leaving this meeting because, Mr. President, with you, all
roads lead to Putin.
Mr. Speaker, this is awful. They say Putin is the richest man in the
world. He is a villainous person and somebody who uses rape,
kidnapping, and family killings in order to demoralize a country.
He hasn't succeeded, and he is a loser because he thought he was
going to win the first week of this war. It is now 4 years later.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi for her
unrelenting support for liberty and the people Ukraine. May God bless
them and may in our lifetime we see their consequential victory. We
must not abandon them.
Ms. PELOSI. One more thing: Right before Christmas a few years ago,
when President Zelenskyy came here and spoke, this body just rose up in
support. We need more than applause, though. We need a discharge
petition.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for joining us
tonight with all of her duties.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the
very distinguished former and future majority leader of our caucus who
has distinguished himself in his career with a total commitment to our
alliances globally, including our precious European colleagues. We
thank him so very much for joining us here this evening from the State
of Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman who heads the
Ukrainian Caucus and has ties to Ukraine. She is deeply tied to
America, to democracy, liberty, and freedom.
Mr. Speaker, I adopt her remarks as my own. I will add to that, but
it will be surplusage because we could repeat
[[Page H6103]]
everything she said and all the dangers she referred to and all the
atrocities of the Russians.
As I was sitting here, with the exception of Mr. Vindman, who is a
young man, it occurred to me that the speakers who have spoken so far
are of a generation who were children at the time of the Soviet Union.
They understood the viciousness of the bear, and they understood the
enslavement of the Russian people and the captive nations.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the people of Ukraine, for the people
of America, for the people of Europe, for the people of Asia and
Africa, South America, and Australia because all of us are at risk if
dictators like Putin prevail.
For Ukraine, the question is: Will America and this Congress allow it
to become a nation betrayed? I have said it before, and I will say it
again. President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary Rubio,
Negotiator Witkoff, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and others have done
everything to express support for Vladimir Putin's and Russia's
position and to exonerate them from the aggression and from their war
crimes.
Earlier this year, Trump said that the Russians have all the cards.
Mr. Speaker, someone ought to remind our President--and I do so
tonight--that NATO has a combined defense expenditure of $1.58
trillion. Together, we field 3.5 million troops. Our combined GDP is 25
times more than Russia's. Europe holds some $246 billion in frozen
Russian assets.
{time} 1620
I suggest to all of us, to the President, and to the world at large:
Those are a lot of cards, but we need to play them.
As long as they are in the deck, they won't make a difference. Every
day we do not, we look weaker in the eyes of the world. That is a
danger for us and a danger for the international community.
Every day, Russia slaughters more Ukrainians. At least 43,000
Ukrainian soldiers have already given their lives in defense of
democracy, and many more have been wounded.
The Ukrainians will continue to fight valiantly, as the gentlewoman
pointed out, with or without our support. However, our decision will
determine whether their fight is in vain or will prevail.
The other day, a Ukrainian soldier on the front lines told a
reporter: ``They kept withholding military aid, couldn't agree on how
to respond, and we keep paying for their indecisiveness with our blood,
the blood of our children.''
He was referring, of course, not just to the United States but to the
world at large. Ukraine may be paying the price for our negligence
today, but we, the free world, will ultimately bear the cost if we let
Putin prevail.
When we fail to show our strength, our adversaries doubt our resolve.
When our adversaries doubt our resolve, they are assuredly more likely
to test our might.
That is the mistake that Neville Chamberlain made. That is the
mistake that America and the United Kingdom made when we did not honor
the Budapest Memorandum when Putin annexed Crimea.
In my view, Crimea is the mother of this war. The failure to act
decisively in the face of that war crime, of that theft, and of that
international law that was broken led Putin to believe that he could do
this, the invasion of Ukraine, with impunity.
That is a mistake that Donald Trump is making now. This Congress must
not do the same, and the good news is that this Congress has not done
the same. There were 12 votes between 2022 and July of 2025.
Mr. Speaker, the good news is that, on both sides of the aisle, the
overwhelming majority of Members voted to support Ukraine. Mostly, it
was unanimous on this side, but it was also unanimous on the Republican
side, save 1 vote, and then it was 110 to 117, just a small minority.
Those votes average 80 percent of the Members of Congress voting to
support Ukraine. It is not as if there is division in this House. As
the gentlewoman said, there is a discharge petition, which lays in that
desk behind me.
Mr. Speaker, 214 Democrats have signed it, and 2 Republicans have
signed it. There are 216 signatures in all now. We need 2 more to say
to Ukraine, to say to the world, and to say ``yes'' to our
administration that we are in support of liberty over tyranny; we are
in support of a people who have shown extraordinary courage.
Fortunately, we have a winning card to play. Ranking Member Meeks and
I have that bipartisan discharge petition to force on the Ukraine
support, and two Republicans have signed that. That means there are
another 100 who support Ukraine, and all they need to do is sign that
petition, and we will vote in January on that bill that says that we
are going to support Ukraine, freedom, democracy, liberty, and
international law.
Every House Democrat and two Republicans, I say, have signed. Our
legislation includes both sanctions to undermine Russia's war economy
and direct financial and military aid for Ukraine's defense and
reconstruction.
There were 80 United States Senators who have signed onto a bill
imposing sanctions on Russia some 6 months ago, and it has not moved.
What do you think that does to the psychology of Ukraine, Ukrainians,
and their soldiers?
If we report out this bill, in my view, it will change this war not
only materially but psychologically. It doesn't matter how many
concessions you give to Putin--and this administration has given him
many--he will keep fighting this war so long as he thinks he can
outlast the free world.
This is an issue of resolve. I mentioned how much superiority we have
with respect to Russia in size, in money, and in resources.
Mr. Speaker, I know we can do this. Since the Russian invasion in
2022, the House has had at least 12 votes, and I mentioned them, and 80
percent of our people have supported them.
Mr. Speaker, now is not the time to fold. Now is the time to call. If
we play our hand correctly, we can still ensure that Putin suffers a
defeat that will make other dictators around the world think twice
before violating international law and creating war crimes.
Mr. Speaker, we must because make no mistake: Vladimir Putin is
playing for keeps and for empire. Our European allies know that to be
the case because they have been at the point of the enemy's spear when
Chamberlain said that we were buying peace in our time. We then had
World War II.
Let us act.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my Republican colleagues and friends who have
signed on and voted for supporting Ukraine to sign this discharge
petition.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Hoyer), Fifth District, for his comments.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio has 17 minutes
remaining.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Costa), the really extraordinary Congressman from District 21, who
has just been unwavering as a freedom fighter here not just for our
country but for countries around the world that are trying to liberate
themselves from the type of tyranny that Ukraine is facing.
Congressman Costa.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the chairman of the
Ukraine Caucus, Ms. Kaptur, for her leadership, and for my other
colleagues who have spoken this afternoon: Speaker Emeritus Pelosi and
Representative Steny Hoyer.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing threat that Russia
poses to Ukraine, to Europe, to the United States, and to the broader
international order.
On February 24, 2022--I think all of us can remember--Russia,
preplanned and unprovoked, attacked Ukraine. At that time, there was
broad consensus among Republicans and Democrats about what we needed to
do. That was to stand up for democracy.
Senator Lindsey Graham said it quite well at the time that this was
about good versus evil.
{time} 1630
I submit to you today that it is still about good versus evil.
Since that day, Russia has continued its assault on the rules-based
international order. From the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 to
the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has shown a blatant
disregard for international law, national sovereignty, and fundamental
human rights.
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Sadly, I believe that modern-day Russia is a syndicate masquerading
as a country with a mob boss called Putin. That is Russia today.
President Putin has violated, as any mob boss would, every
international agreement he has ever signed, period. That is why a peace
deal must be backed up by strong military deterrence and strong
commitments from Europe and the United States to back Ukraine with
NATO-like defense guarantees. It is very clear. Otherwise, Putin has no
intention of keeping any agreement.
This is not a conventional war. It is a hybrid conflict, combining
military force with cyberattacks at all different levels and fronts,
disinformation campaigns, and economic warfare, alongside deliberate
efforts to weaken NATO and undermine democratic institutions. They go
on attacking civilian neighborhoods, bombing schools, hospitals, and
churches. Clearly, Putin is a war criminal.
When the United States hesitates or sends mixed signals, we do not
create stability; we invite aggression. Let's be clear about that.
History is replete with examples of those who hesitate or send mixed
signals. Therefore, American leadership remains the cornerstone of
global security.
To President Trump, Putin respects one thing and one thing only, and
that is strength. By supporting Ukraine, the United States is sending a
clear message: authoritarian regimes cannot invade their neighbors
without consequences. I ask the President of the United States to be
strong and stand by the brave people of Ukraine and our allies.
Any sustainable resolution to this conflict must include Ukraine at
the negotiating table. How else could you reach a peace agreement? The
country under attack must have a decisive voice in shaping its own
future and determining the terms of peace--otherwise, it is illogical--
ensuring that agreements respect its sovereignty and the will of its
people.
Therefore, we must continue to strengthen our alliance, develop agile
and region-specific strategies, and ensure that we are prepared to
respond across all domains, including cyberspace, information warfare,
and economic coercion, because economic sanctions can work.
The President has the leverage, with continued military support,
economic support, and sanctions using the sovereign wealth of Russia to
pay for the damage and the harm that they have created, with our
European allies. We have the leverage.
We cannot allow this aggression to go unanswered. We must stand
firmly with Ukraine and defend the democracy and international order
that we helped create. It has created prosperity since World War II,
economic prosperity that democratic nations have shared because America
stood strong.
That same order has brought peace and economic prosperity--think
about it--throughout the world for 80 years for democratic nations.
Therefore, this is a seminal moment in American and world history that
we are facing.
I urge my colleagues to act as we have--as Representative Steny Hoyer
indicated, 12 times in an overwhelming bipartisan fashion--to stand up
for America's values, to stand up for human rights, to act collectively
in a bipartisan fashion. Why? Because our security and the security of
free nations everywhere depend on it.
My colleagues, my friends, the world is watching and looking for
American leadership. This is the test of our time. ``Glory to
Ukraine''; ``Slava Ukraini.''
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Costa for his fervent
leadership on every level and for all he has done to continue
negotiations with our closest allies that fight at our side and push
back the edge of tyranny wherever it exists.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio has 8 minutes
remaining.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Vindman), a great patriot from Virginia's Seventh District.
Mr. VINDMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reaffirm my commitment to
peace in Ukraine, a peace that acknowledges the massive sacrifice of
the Ukrainian people and that secures perpetual sovereignty, not just a
temporary reprieve that the Russians will use to rearm and reattack.
We must continue to stand firmly with the Ukrainian people in their
fight for freedom and sovereignty. I have traveled to Ukraine
extensively since this major phase of the war started in February 2022,
15 trips, the first 14 between June 2022 and October 2023,
investigating war crimes and trying to help the Ukrainian people. The
last one was the only bipartisan House delegation visit to Ukraine this
year. Frankly, I think that is a shameful statistic, that only
Congressman Mike Turner and I managed to make it to Ukraine this year,
a year the Ukrainians faced enormous pressure.
In those trips, I visited places like Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, places
where Russian soldiers brutally executed civilians, places where
Russians attacked Ukrainian infrastructure, attempting to freeze and
starve the Ukrainian population.
I tell you that what I saw was a war crime, and those crimes are
perpetuated almost daily by Russians, including attacks on and killing
of POWs.
It is in the United States' national security interest to secure
peace between Russia and Ukraine, but only when that peace comes with
dignity and security for the Ukrainian people.
We have seen Russia's playbook. They use time. They buy time to rearm
so they can attack. They sow discord throughout the neighborhood, in
Moldova, Transnistria, Georgia, and Ukraine.
True peace will never be achieved by the world by appeasing Putin.
That is why we must stand together. This peace proposal that we have
recently seen, the 28-points, Dmitriev, who is the leader of the
sovereign wealth fund, and Witkoff, a real estate investor--I call it
the Dim-Wit peace proposal.
This Dim-Wit peace proposal is nothing more than a giveaway to
Vladimir Putin. It does nothing to achieve peace. Frankly, it would
have made Prime Minister Chamberlain blush after Munich, that level of
weakness and appeasement.
Let me be clear. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine could not be
achieved by the United States alone. It could not be achieved without
transatlantic unity. It could not be achieved without European support.
We must stand with the Ukrainian people. We must stand on the right
side of history and not support a shameful and weak appeasement deal.
``Glory to Ukraine''; ``Slava Ukraini.''
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Vindman for his service
to our country and also to the cause of liberty globally.
{time} 1640
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Landsman), who represents Ohio's First District in the greater
Cincinnati area. Let's be kind to him. He has been waiting a long time.
Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her
incredible leadership and remarkable remarks.
I rise today on behalf of the children of Ukraine. More than 35,000
children from Ukraine have been stolen by Vladimir Putin. These
children are being hidden in Russia and being sent to indoctrination
camps. Some are even being trained as soldiers to fight against their
own country.
We can't wait for a peace agreement to reunite these children with
their families. They are not bargaining chips, and Putin must release
them now.
As the father of two, I can't imagine the terror of having a child
taken from our family, from our home.
Earlier this year, we uncovered a State Department program to track
these abducted children had been terminated. We were able to get it
back up and running.
Our bill, the Abducted Ukrainian Kids Recovery and Accountability
Act, will restart this program so that we can keep tracking every
single child. This bill was included in the NDAA and will be signed
into law tonight. We can't stop until these children are back where
they belong, which is home.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Landsman. He is such an
outstanding Member. I thank him for being here.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for your deference and ability to allow us to
speak.
[[Page H6105]]
I just want to end this evening by saying that this Special Order is
not really just about this generation but those to come, and for our
children, for our grandchildren, the kind of world that we leave them.
We simply cannot appease dictators, because we will leave a very ugly
world to them in the future.
The last thing I wish to place on the Record, if you would allow me
just a couple of seconds here, in 2014, when the Olympics were going on
in Sochi, for the first time in Russia in modern history, Vladimir
Putin used the Olympics, when most people were distracted, to cover up
the fact that he was going to invade Ukraine, which he did. The
Olympics were the shield from a public relations standpoint, but what
had just happened was that his stooge who was the head of Ukraine then,
Viktor Yanukovych, had to flee the country because he was such a crook
and was totally a tool of Putin.
What the American people need to understand is, Ukraine had to dig
itself out from under decades, centuries of Russian imposition and
corrupt leaders that held down the ability of this country to flower
into a free nation.
What we are fighting for is for the ability of people to have liberty
first, last, and always, in the place, in the world where Stalin killed
more people than anyplace else in the history of the world.
God bless America.
``Glory to Ukraine,'' ``Slava Ukraini.''
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
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