[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4177-4182]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                                UKRAINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Daines). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, my remarks this evening will focus on the 
crisis facing Ukraine and our world, the most significant test of the 
will of liberty-loving people since the collapse of the Soviet Union 
and the end of the Cold War.
  The events halfway around the world remind us how precious our own 
liberties are and how important it is for the world community of 
liberty-loving nations, those that respect human life and those that 
believe in democratic advancement. We have common cause with those who 
stood in the streets in the subzero temperatures of Ukraine, whose 
futures are uncertain as I deliver my remarks this evening.
  The world community of liberty-loving nations and those that respect 
treaty obligations and their roles as members of the United Nations 
Security Council cannot let the kind of illegal invasion of another 
country stand. Russia, one of the permanent members of the Security 
Council of the United Nations, has invaded a sovereign country, 
violating her territorial integrity and putting off the day that 
Ukraine can handle its own internal affairs in order to get rid of the 
corruption of the former regime and allow the voices of people who so 
very much want to live in a free society to fully develop.
  Our Nation and the world have to stand up for freedom, democracy, and 
human rights in Ukraine. These precious values will be diminished 
everywhere if we fail to raise our voices in support of those whose 
lives are at risk. The West, involving our allies from around the 
world, has to exert strong diplomatic initiatives, economic reform, 
including a financing package that the International Monetary Fund and 
other nations are putting together, humanitarian relief, if requested, 
and military assistance to strengthen our NATO alliance and the 
protection of borders.
  Recently, the Ambassador from Ukraine to the United States, 
Ambassador Motsyk, wrote a letter to Members of Congress, and tonight I 
am going to read it into the Record so every American can hear it:

       Dear Members of the United States Congress:
       I would like to begin by thanking the United States of 
     America, and specifically the United States Congress, for the 
     unwavering support of Ukraine at these challenging times.
       For the past couple of months, Ukraine has been in the 
     world's headlines. The whole world saw the determination of 
     hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who took to the streets 
     to stand for a better life--for freedom, democracy, and the 
     end of blatant corruption that stifled our country for far 
     too long. Yet the Yanukovych regime tried to silence the 
     protesters with guns. Peaceful and unarmed demonstrators were 
     met by special forces with snipers who shot dead almost a 
     hundred people and wounded hundreds more.
       In an attempt to prevent further bloodshed and resolve the 
     crisis, on February 21, 2014, leaders of the opposition 
     Vitali Klychko, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Arsenii Yatsenyuk on one 
     side, and the corrupt regime of Viktor Yanukovych on the 
     other, signed an agreement that had been negotiated with the 
     help of foreign ministers of Poland, Germany, and France. 
     Russia's Special Envoy, Vladimir Lukin, was present, but 
     refused to sign it. Therefore, the suggestion by the Russian 
     side that the opposition failed to implement the agreement is 
     groundless.
       The agreement called for an end of violence, restoration of 
     the Ukrainian Constitution of 2004 and early presidential 
     elections. However, on February 22, 2014, President Viktor 
     Yanukovych fled the capitol and de facto removed himself from 
     his constitutional authority. Therefore, on February 27, 
     2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was the only legitimate 
     authority in Ukraine at that time, given the resignation of 
     the government and the President's self-removal from 
     exercising his functions, and restored the 2004 Constitution 
     (approved by 386 votes out of 450), recognized that Viktor 
     Yanukovych removed himself from his constitutional duties 
     through unconstitutional means by 386 votes, including 140 
     votes from the pro-Yanukovych Party of Regions, and set the 
     early elections of the President of Ukraine on May 25, 2014 
     (328 votes).

  That was 328, a vast majority of members of their Congress, of their 
Rada, voted for that.

       According to Article 112 of the Constitution of Ukraine of 
     2004, in case of early termination of powers of the President 
     of Ukraine, the functions of the President of Ukraine shall 
     be carried out by the speaker of the Parliament until a new 
     President is elected and inaugurated, the only legitimate 
     supreme authority in Ukraine is the Verkhovna Rada of 
     Ukraine.

  The Verkhovna Rada is their Congress.

       The Rada elected its new speaker, Mr. Oleksandr Turchynov 
     (by 288 votes), who acts as the President of Ukraine until 
     the elections, and appointed Mr. Yatsenyuk as the Prime 
     Minister (by 371 votes). These actions were made in full 
     compliance with Ukrainian laws.

  That is over three-quarters of the membership. As the American people 
listen to what is happening there, you are watching a country trying to 
hold its government together. It was like at the beginning of our 
Republic when we weren't quite sure exactly how it was all going to be 
put together, but we were trying mightily to create a republic. 
However, even after the Ukrainian Congress did that, Russia did not 
recognize these changes and considers the former President, Viktor 
Yanukovych, its legitimate President, despite the votes of the 
Parliament, the highest standing body in the Nation of Ukraine.

       Producing a piece of paper purporting to be Mr. 
     Yanukovych's letter asking Mr. Putin to send Russian troops 
     to Ukraine, the Federation Council of Russia, upon Mr. 
     Putin's request, approved such a decision.

  Some of us who are old enough to remember, remember what it was like 
living with the Soviet Union, a Soviet Union that invaded its 
neighbors, a Soviet Union that moved its tanks across Europe, a Soviet 
Union that killed over 14 million of its own people. There are some 
Americans old enough to remember that.
  Now, the former President of Ukraine, Mr. Yanukovych, who stole from 
his own people--those are my words, not the Ambassador's--

       Mr. Yanukovych is no longer the President of Ukraine, 
     particularly after his escape from Kyiv on February 22, 2014. 
     Therefore, none of his statements have any significance under 
     either Ukrainian or international law. But in any way, even 
     if the legitimate President of Ukraine called upon a foreign 
     country to intervene with its armed forces in Ukraine, such a 
     statement would also be worth nothing, because under the 
     Constitution of Ukraine, Article 85, only the Verkhovna Rada 
     of Ukraine, its Congress, can approve decisions on admitting 
     units of armed forces of other states to the territory of 
     Ukraine. The Rada clearly stated it had not made any such 
     decisions.
       Seeing that Ukraine is determined to pursue its European 
     course, Russia, under the

[[Page 4178]]

     completely trumped up pretext, invaded Crimea with its armed 
     forces.

  People of Hungarian-American ancestry understand what it is like to 
be invaded. People of Polish-American heritage understand what it is 
like to be invaded. People of Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian heritage 
understand what it is like to be invaded by the Big Bear. There are 
plenty of American people who understand what the Ukrainian people are 
facing right now.

       The Russian forces are seeking to establish complete 
     control over Ukraine's military facilities in Crimea, trying 
     to block and disarm Ukrainian military garrisons and border 
     guard bases, blocking airports and ships. The Russian troops 
     and armored vehicles are moving uncontrollably around Crimea, 
     one of Ukraine's states, and numerous Russian military planes 
     and helicopters violated Ukrainian airspace.

  Russia's power far outweighs Ukraine, which is nearly defenseless 
facing this massive force, and yet, Ukrainian soldiers have hunkered 
down in army bases, in air control stations, trying to stand up as they 
are surrounded; what courage. What courage.

       By countless provocations, Russian military is seeking to 
     instigate an armed conflict and replicate in Ukraine the 
     Abkhazia and South Ossetia scenario. However, Ukrainian 
     servicemen act with utmost restraint and don't react to such 
     provocations, but there's a threat that Russia may engineer 
     provocations against its own troops, and blame them on 
     Ukraine.

  Don't forget, Russia's President was head of the KGB, their secret 
police. He knows these techniques well.

       There is also an ongoing accumulation of Russian equipment 
     on the Russian territory in close proximity to the border of 
     Ukraine in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk and Chernihiv 
     oblasts.

  What does that mean?
  These actions may indicate preparedness of the Russian side for 
possible intervention into the Ukrainian territory across the land 
border.

       The military intervention is accompanied by a huge outburst 
     of fabrications. I can assure you that Russian-speaking 
     citizens of Ukraine enjoy the same rights and freedoms as 
     other citizens of my country. Nobody has ever forbidden, 
     forbids, or will forbid the use of the Russian language, as 
     the Russian propaganda tries to demonstrate.

  In fact, if you go to Ukraine, people speak many languages. They 
speak Ukrainian, they speak Russian, some speak a combination. Some 
speak Polish as well. Some speak German. There are many languages 
spoken in the nation of Ukraine.

       As of today, there is no proof of any violations of Russian 
     minority rights in Ukraine; there were no appeals to the 
     relevant Ukrainian authorities, neither from those allegedly 
     affected nor from Russia's officials. In accordance with the 
     Memorandum of Understanding between the Parliamentary 
     Commissioner on Human Rights of Ukraine and the Ombudsman of 
     the Russian Federation in case of such appeals to the Russian 
     side, they are transferred to the Ukrainian Ombudsman.
       The actions by the Russian Federation constitute an act of 
     aggression against the state of Ukraine. Russian Federation 
     brutally violated the basic principles of Charter of the 
     United Nations obliging all member states to refrain from the 
     threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or 
     political independence of any state.

  What has happened is serious.

       Ukraine in the strongest possible terms protested such 
     actions, but Russia officially rejected Ukrainian proposals 
     to hold immediate bilateral consultation (under article 7 of 
     the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership 
     between Ukraine and the Russian Federation of 1997).

  Again, another treaty violation.

       Russia's actions pose a serious threat not only to the 
     sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, but also to 
     the peace and stability in the whole region. Moreover, 
     Russian's action provoke a disbalance in the international 
     security system, and can lead to violations of the regime of 
     international nuclear nonproliferation on a global scale.
       When in 1994, Ukraine became a party to the 
     Nonproliferation Treaty and voluntarily surrendered the 
     third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, it did so 
     exclusively under certain conditions. These conditions 
     envisaged granting security assurances to Ukraine by the five 
     nuclear states. On December 5, 1994, the United States, the 
     Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom signed the 
     Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances to Ukraine. The 
     French Republic and the People's Republic of China support 
     the memorandum by signing separate declarations.
       Ukraine has thoroughly implemented its commitments under 
     the Nonproliferation Treaty and has taken and fulfilled 
     additional obligations by getting rid of all of its 
     stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

                              {time}  1945

       Today, we witness the situation when the Russian Federation 
     attempts to undermine the NPT regime not only by violating 
     the Budapest Memorandum, but also by violating the 
     Nonproliferation Treaty, which clearly states in its preamble 
     that ``States must refrain in their international relations 
     from the threat or use of force against the territorial 
     integrity or political independence of any state, or in any 
     other manner.''
       Nonadherence by one guarantor state--the Russian 
     Federation--to its commitments under the Budapest Memorandum 
     by the military invasion in Ukraine creates a situation when 
     the threshold states may consider international legal 
     instruments insufficient to ensure security, territorial 
     integrity and inviolability of their borders.
       We rely on the commitments contained in the Budapest 
     Memorandum of 1994 and the Charter on a Distinctive 
     Partnership between NATO in Ukraine, as well as the U.S.-
     Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership and other bilateral 
     documents.

  Ukraine is asking the world community to pay attention.

       We need help from the guarantor states, the United Nations, 
     NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
     Europe--

  Who, by the way, have been denied access on repeated attempts to 
enter Crimea unarmed to observe, Russia has denied them entry.

       --the European Union, all civilized nations to protect our 
     sovereignty and territorial integrity by all available means 
     and to prevent a war which would shatter peace in Europe and 
     will have grave and irrevocable consequences for peace and 
     security on a global scale.

  Ambassador Motsyk goes on:

       The aggression must be stopped, and we rely on the strong 
     and unified position of the global community.
       Military units deployed from Russia must leave the 
     territory of Ukraine immediately, and those belonging to the 
     Russian Black Sea Fleet must return to their barracks. Armed 
     gangs that came from Russia must also immediately leave 
     Ukraine.
       Crimea is an inalienable part of Ukraine, with citizens of 
     all ethnic backgrounds.
       All issues should be resolved through negotiations. There 
     is no alternative to a peaceful and diplomatic solution of 
     the crisis. We hope that wisdom will prevail.
       We need America's help, and we count on it.
       Sincerely yours,
       Olexandr Motsyk
       Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States

  I also want to say that there has been some conjecture in the news 
that we have heard the President of Russia say that Crimea really 
doesn't belong in Ukraine because, back in the 1950s, when there was a 
Russian leader by the name of Nikita Khrushchev, that he got drunk one 
night and he kind of consigned Crimea to Ukraine by accident--by 
accident--because he wasn't thinking.
  There are also very interesting facts contained in a book published 
in Moscow in 2003 entitled ``Ukraine is not Russia.'' Do you know who 
it was written by? It was written by the former President of Ukraine, 
President Leonid Kuchma.
  In chapter 14 of that book, President Kuchma devoted 13 pages to 
trace the history of Crimea and Ukraine. He called it the ``Crimean 
knot.''
  The former President said--when he discusses the politics around the 
transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, he says the then-transition to 
Ukrainian administration after Ukraine became independent and how he 
dealt with separatist forces during his tenure as President.
  Kuchma maintains that the transfer of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine 
came in response to petitions from the Crimeans themselves, who felt 
Moscow was too far away and insufficiently responsive to their everyday 
concerns, where their own country, their own capital of Kiev, was 
likely to be more attentive, particularly on issues of water and other 
utilities; so they could provide for Crimea better than Moscow, located 
far, far away.
  Crimea then, Kuchma writes, was a desert and frontier land. He is 
referring back to the post-World War II period, particularly after the 
devastation of World War II.
  That area was just violated and leveled to such an extent. It is hard 
for people in the West who have never experienced that to fully 
accommodate what happened there.

[[Page 4179]]

  The residents believe Ukraine would be a better fit administratively, 
so he says--President Kuchma who had headed that country--the story of 
a drunken Nikita Khrushchev ceding Crimea to Ukraine as a gift is a 
fairytale. Those are his own words.
  In 1954, right after Stalin's death--and what a butcher he was--
Khrushchev hardly had the unbridled authority to make such unilateral 
decisions. At the time, he was vying for power inside his own country.
  The actual act of transferring Crimea to Ukraine was signed by the 
head of what was called the Presidium, Kliment Voroshilov, not 
Khrushchev.
  So the President of Russia maybe didn't read history, I don't know; 
but the point was the transfer to Ukraine came in 1954. It was a 
consequential date, and it has remained in Ukraine as part of that 
region for the entire second half of the 20th century and the first 
decade of this century. I thought it was important to put that on the 
Record.
  I also wanted to say, as a Member of Congress, I am so very, very 
proud of the work that has been done by the Verkhovna Rada, the legal 
authority in Ukraine that is holding that Nation together. They are our 
counterpart. They are a legislative branch of their government, just as 
we are here.
  We for many years now, since 1999, have had a parliamentary exchange 
with Ukraine, founded and signed by all of our Members, with the former 
speaker of their Parliament, Mr. Oleksandr Tkachenko, and our Speaker 
here for many congresses back, Speaker Dennis Hastert. That agreement 
lives today.
  Over the last decade and a half, we have had many parliamentary 
exchanges. We have had teleconferences. We have had journeys by 
Ukrainian parliamentarians here and American Members of Congress there.
  We believe that the collective intelligence of Ukraine is contained 
in that Rada. We are very proud of the work they are doing, and we want 
to continue working with them.
  Our agreement says that we want to build upon the strategic 
partnership between the United States and Ukraine, first established in 
1996, and that our parliamentary exchange would serve as a conduit in 
further developing and continuing economic and political cooperation 
between our two countries.
  The types of discussions that we have held--and will continue to do 
in the future--will encompass economic relations, trade, space 
exploration, health care, the environment, agriculture, natural 
resources, and any other matter important to the promotion of close 
ties between the United States and Ukraine.
  This is a moment for more robust engagement with the Parliament of 
Ukraine and our own Congress. The idea is that we can learn from one 
another, we can be mutually supportive, and we know how important 
legislative bodies are to nations that actually expand freedoms, rights 
of free speech, rights of assembly, rights of free press, rights of 
free expression of religion, and we are very proud to be partnered with 
the Verkhovna Rada.
  I would also like to read this evening from an excellent article that 
was written for The New Republic by Yale scholar Dr. Timothy Snyder, 
the author of a recent bestseller called ``Bloodlands: Europe Between 
Hitler and Stalin,'' during World War II. It is incredible work.
  But in this particular article, he talks about where Putin is 
vulnerable, where his soft spots are. He states at the beginning of the 
article:

       In dispatching troops to Ukraine, Russia has violated 
     international law, flouted multiple treaty commitments, and 
     set the stage for a European war.

  It is right that the American people are paying attention; it is 
right that we are using our power to try to put the bear back where it 
belongs and to try to move the situation to stability. The price of 
poor diplomacy, I think, would be catastrophic.
  In this article, Dr. Snyder ends by saying:

       Russian propaganda derides Europeans as fey and helpless, 
     and we too often tend to agree. But the European Union does 
     have instruments of influence. Its greatest power, of course, 
     is its attractiveness to societies on its borders, such as 
     Ukraine. But even where membership is not an option, and the 
     European Union faces unambiguous hostility, it can act. 
     Russia's very contempt for the European Union might force 
     Europeans to undertake a more active foreign policy and to 
     take responsibility for their neighborhood.

  The United States has to use our power to help push the situation in 
that direction.
  I just wanted to ask if our dear colleague from Iowa, does he have 
his own Special Order, or does he wish to join in this Special Order? 
Congressman King of Iowa.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I very much appreciate the gentlelady for yielding 
to me. I have a few topics I intend to bring up in the subsequent hour.
  I want to thank the gentlelady for raising this topic and for the 
significant information that has been delivered here with regard to 
Ukraine, the Russians, and the political scenario that we are in.
  I am contemplating what this means to the world. I will say, Mr. 
Speaker, that I am more troubled than many about the circumstances that 
have unfolded off of the Black Sea.
  I have watched as Putin set up the Olympics. It looked like part of 
it was for self-glorification. When I think about what this means 
politically, much of the world is looking at Putin, thinking, well, 
look at all of the $50-plus billion you invested in the Olympics, and 
now, you see the world opinion now has turned against you when you had 
all of that good will that was garnered at the Sochi Olympics.
  I think it is a little bit different perspective from where I sit, 
that is that the component of this is true, but I don't think Putin 
cares about world opinion. I think he cares about how much hegemony he 
can deliver from the seat that he has. I think that the good will that 
came among the Russian people, his popularity numbers had to go up.
  Remember, this is a man who went through a difficult contentious 
election in 2012. There were demonstrations in the streets in multiple 
places around Russia. The tension that was there, as any leader, his 
hold on power can't just be by force and fear alone, there has to be 
some support that is there.
  I believe that the Olympics actually helped Putin and gave him the 
support base at home that would allow him to pull off an invasion--an 
illegal invasion of the Crimea.
  I don't think he cares about what we think. I don't think he cares 
what the President thinks, Mr. Speaker. I don't think he cares so much 
even what the European Union thinks, as long as they continue to buy 
gas from him and keep his economy going, but I think that was a 
component.
  The next thing is that I have watched him for a good number of years, 
and perhaps not with the attention to detail the gentlelady from Ohio 
has delivered here tonight, but I have long concluded that Vladimir 
Putin is committed to restoring, to the extent that he can in his time, 
the old Soviet Union.
  I think he sees this as a giant geopolitical chess game. I would 
think back at the time in 1984 when then Ronald Reagan's ambassador to 
the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick stepped down as ambassador to move 
on with her career.
  I remember picking up on page 3 or 4 of the newspaper a little tiny 
article there that mentioned it. It wasn't any examination, but it said 
a little quote that I think she was very well known for, Jeane 
Kirkpatrick.

                              {time}  2000

  We were in the depths of the cold war at the time, I would add, and 
she said: What is going on in this cold war between the United States 
of America and the Soviet Union is the equivalent of playing chess and 
Monopoly on the same board. The question is: Will the United States of 
America break the Soviet Union economically in the Monopoly component 
of the game before the Soviet Union checkmates the United States 
militarily?
  That was the contest. That was a contest as Reagan and Thatcher saw 
it.

[[Page 4180]]

That was the contest as far as Pope John Paul II saw it, I believe. We 
know how that turned out at least in the temporary. The strength of the 
economy of the United States and our ability to continue to develop 
more and more technology--to put SDI up in order to restore our 
national defenses--became the deciding factor. The Soviet Union could 
no longer keep up with the United States, and the Soviet Union couldn't 
keep up with the free world. The juggernaut of our economy overwhelmed 
the managed economy of the Soviets. Of course, Gorbachev was a player 
in this, and we had glasnost and perestroika. So I think he saw that he 
couldn't hold it together anymore, and to the extent that he cooperated 
with Lady Thatcher and President Reagan, we saw the worm turn of 
history.
  I hold in my office a piece of the Berlin Wall. That is framed in my 
office, and I have had it since 1989. Excuse me. Actually, it was on 
September 12 of 1990 that that piece was chiseled out of the wall for 
me. I didn't get to do that myself. That piece of the Berlin Wall 
represents a piece of the Iron Curtain, itself. The Berlin Wall was the 
physical structure of the Iron Curtain that Winston Churchill described 
at Fulton, Missouri, in 1948. The Iron Curtain was drawn by, I believe, 
the finger of Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph 
Stalin, whom the gentlelady has mentioned, at Yalta, on February 11, 
1945, when we didn't know how World War II was going to turn out.
  The Allies got together when we were allied with the Russians, and 
they drew a line across the map. On the east side of that line, they 
were going to live under the Soviet Union, under the iron fist of 
communism. On the west side of that line, people were going to live and 
be free, and the destinies of hundreds of millions of people were 
determined at Yalta. It is curious to me that Putin has invaded and 
occupied Crimea, which includes Yalta.
  One day, I hope to stand on that real estate and look out across the 
bay where that decision was made. It was a momentous time in history, 
and it began the domino effect of the military invasion and occupation 
of free country after free country. It spilled over to the east--into 
Korea, Southeast Asia. I have long believed that, had we held a 
different position--a stronger negotiating position--and if we had 
insisted with Stalin that we were not going to hand the Eastern Bloc 
countries over to him, we might have ended up with the map that we see 
today rather than the map that was so hard fought through the cold war. 
Think how different it is.
  Now I would ask, Mr. Speaker, that when people think about this--and 
the gentlelady from Ohio and I discussed this in some of the very 
engaging conversations we have had--think about how the Iron Curtain 
was constructed, defined at Yalta on February 11 and 12 of 1945, and 
how that line moved when the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989 as 
each of the Eastern Bloc countries stepped up and grasped their 
freedom. I think of the people by the tens of thousands standing in the 
square in Prague, rattling their keys in the square at Prague. Over 
time, they rattled their keys into, essentially, a bloodless revolution 
that brought about the freedom of the Czechs for the first time in 
decades. That kind of desire--that heart for freedom--washed across 
Eastern Europe. It actually washed across Russia for a time. There was 
a time that I said that freedom echoed all across Europe and all the 
way to the Pacific Ocean. I believed that for a while, Mr. Speaker.
  Of course, we don't believe this today because the Russia that is 
ruled under Putin isn't the Russia that the Russian people believed 
they were going to get when the Soviet Union melted down and imploded, 
and that became what we thought for a time--hoped for a time--was the 
end of the cold war. Now I fear that it has relaunched and restarted. 
Yet we should look at this map of where the new Iron Curtain is. It is 
at the border of Russia. It doesn't go west of the border of Russia, 
and it should not be allowed to creep west of the border of Russia.
  That is what I believe the gentlelady and I are committed to working 
towards--to restoring the strength and the prosperity of the people who 
live free and who give the inspiration to those who do not to live as 
we do, as a free people.
  I very much appreciate the gentlelady.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman King for being here this 
evening, also for attending the briefing this afternoon and for 
participating fully in that effort.
  As you were speaking, I have a piece of the Berlin Wall in my office. 
I knocked it off with a hammer in 1989, and I have it framed, and it 
will be there for the people of my region forever. It is all framed, 
and it is labeled in memory of that incredible moment.
  What we learned during that period of time, post World War II, was 
that we have to maintain our resolve. I say this to the people of 
Ukraine that we will not forget you, and if liberty-loving nations use 
their collective power, change is possible, that change for the better 
is possible. So, for those who have fear and trepidation, know that 
there have been models of states before.
  Take Hungary, which was invaded in 1956. I can remember Cardinal 
Mindszenty, from my own denomination, being locked up. When the Russian 
tanks came into Budapest, Cardinal Mindszenty became a symbol of 
freedom for the whole world. He was held in the U.S. Embassy. They gave 
him a closet there, and I actually saw it when I was traveling in 
Budapest. He became a symbol in the West for defiance against the 
regime, and our government played a role in that. Cardinal Mindszenty 
was not an American. He was a Hungarian. He was a Roman Catholic 
prelate. He risked his life, and he never came out of that Embassy. He 
became a symbol.
  If we look at what happened in the fifties and the sixties in Poland, 
as labor union members began to demonstrate and be killed, Father Jerzy 
Popieluszko lost his life in standing up for their right to have a 
better way of life, and, ultimately, Pope John Paul II became a Pope 
from inside the Iron Curtain. We saw how religious leaders struggled 
with the people to give them full voice. It is just so historically 
compelling and from another realm, from an advanced realm of where the 
human soul seeks to bring a better way of life to people who seem to be 
fighting against the odds. They don't have a lot of guns and weapons 
and nuclear weapons and battleships at their behest, but there is a 
spirit that attends to those who want to build a better way of life. In 
standing with the people and in thinking with the people of Ukraine, we 
hope we embody that spirit.
  We were graced with the presence at the National Prayer Breakfast 
recently with the head of the Orthodox Christian congregations of 
Ukraine's Patriarch Filaret. We also had other leaders from the Greek 
Catholic, the Baptist, the Jewish denominations in Ukraine. I have this 
hope that as the Easter and Passover season approaches that the 
religious leaders will find a way to invite the world community that 
wants so very much for the people of Ukraine to be free, that we will 
find a way to pray for their future together. We hope the religious 
leaders of Ukraine invite us. I would love to be in that procession. 
What a place for the world community to be in this Easter-Passover 
season.
  There were Muslims and imams who stood in the square in Kiev; there 
were Orthodox; there were Baptists; there were Catholics; there were 
Christian leaders; there were union leaders. What courage. They had no 
weapons. The weapons were all around them, but they stood their ground. 
The power of that message is not lost on the people of Ukraine. It is 
not lost on her neighbors. Frankly, it is not lost on Russia. It is a 
great power to stand with the spirit of those who want to be free and 
to find a way to do that, to find a peaceful way to do that.
  The Russian Government has never known freedom. They have never had a 
free election. They have no concept of how to run a free society. I 
first traveled into that region in 1973, trying to find the shattered 
remnants of our

[[Page 4181]]

family, and the further I got--the further we drove--we ended up, I 
remember, going through then-Czechoslovakia as we entered. We were the 
only civilian car on the road. Every single vehicle on the road was 
either a little, white delivery truck or a military truck. I can 
remember our beloved mother, Anastasia, and I were sitting there in the 
car, and I was driving.
  The further we got as we headed toward Prague, the military soldiers 
would lift the tarp up on the back of the trucks and look at us--these 
two women, driving in this orange car with a Western license plate. We 
must have been a real curiosity, and completely unarmed as they checked 
you before you went over the border. I remember going over that 
border--and the gun turrets and the barbed wire--as we proceeded east 
and how our luggage and our car was examined at every border. The 
further we got, the more lonely it became until we were the only 
vehicle on the road as we entered Ukraine for the first time, crossing 
the border at a place called Uzhhorod, and the Soviets making us wait 5 
hours at the border so they could take our car apart. It was just a 
little car. We had just two suitcases. They couldn't believe we were 
Americans. They thought we would have brought seven trunks. They looked 
under the car. They held us at the border until it was night. There 
were no streetlights, and there were no traffic signs.
  We had to find our way from Poland to Lviv, the major city on the 
western side of Ukraine. In riding over the roads, which had huge 
rocks, I thought, boy, we are going to get a flat. There were no gas 
stations. I mean, there was nothing. There was no electricity. We just 
drove into the wilderness in trying to find that town. When we finally 
got there, which was very late at night, I saw this little sign called 
``In-Tourist.'' That was where they allowed guests or foreigners to 
stay.
  I said to Mom: This must be the place.
  It was dusty. There was nobody. There was nobody on the streets, and 
there were no vehicles. There was just this tiny, little sign in the 
window.
  I went in. There was one desk clerk and one gentleman who was dressed 
in an elevator operator outfit. He didn't speak any English, and I 
didn't speak his language. He signaled to me that he wanted me to take 
the car. He was in the car, and we drove it to the Lviv Opera House, 
which was in complete disarray. I mean it wasn't fixed up like it is 
today. The car was then seized. It was put behind those closed gates, 
and I never saw it again until we left the country. So we had to go 
everywhere on foot, and we were watched everywhere. We were trying to 
find the pieces of our family. Our grandparents had come to America 100 
years before.
  I remember how grim it was. I remember people didn't laugh a lot. 
They didn't have a lot to eat. We tried to find our relatives. We had, 
through relatives in Poland, tried to notify the village from which our 
grandparents came. We stayed in the hotel for 3 days, and we thought, 
well, nobody is coming. Then our mother, who spoke Polish and who could 
understand Ukrainian and Russian, heard our name on the third day. Here 
people had been trying to find us for 3 days. We were the only people 
in the hotel, and they were told that we weren't there. I can remember 
how awful that was. Of course, the room we stayed in was up on the 
second floor of a building now that they call the St. George Hotel, but 
then it was just the In-Tourist Hotel. They stationed a very large 
woman outside our hotel door there, with a table and a water bottle, 
and she knew whether we were coming or going or who came in, and there 
was a listening device in the wall. There were no curtains on the 
windows, and there was no hot water. I just remember how sparse it was.

                              {time}  2015

  I am probably in Congress today because of what I experienced back 
then and the understanding I came to have of what life was like there 
and how difficult it was. I can't go into it all this evening, but I 
learned about the suffering of the people firsthand.
  I think one of the shocking experiences I had was how poorly the 
Soviet government treated its veterans. They asked me for wheelchairs, 
they asked me for crutches. I couldn't believe how little respect they 
had for their own people.
  So when I see Vladimir Putin invade Ukraine and invade Crimea, he has 
no respect for the people there.
  We got into the villages. You could only go to certain approved 
villages in those days. I found that in the village of our grandparents 
they had to build an outhouse for us to visit, with this little tiny 
set of stones going back to the outhouse. Americans say, What? I said, 
Yes. Their life was so basic.
  I thought I would never eat a potato again in my life because all we 
ate was potatoes with lard on top for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and 
tomatoes that had been canned. They gave us the best they had.
  I thought, So this is communism.
  The life of the ordinary person is so pitiful. They had no fresh 
water. I got deathly ill. There were no doctors. You couldn't get 
medicine. I learned what dysentery was. I learned what unsafe food was. 
I learned how the relatives, including one of my great uncles, had been 
tortured and sent to work camps. They called them gulags. His brother 
died there. I began to understand the full price that families pay who 
live under those kinds of systems.
  So President Putin has no clue to what a free society really means. 
So much unneeded suffering.
  We have this moment in history to make a difference. I know the 
American people are considering how to make that difference. Freedom-
loving people around the world are as well.
  I find the judicious and firm acts of President Obama and Secretary 
Kerry to be very constructive. America can't be the babysitter for the 
world. On the other hand, there is a conscience that rises in freedom-
lovers, and, thinking together, America will make the right decisions, 
with her allies around the world, to right this situation and to allow 
those who want their liberty, after paying such an egregious price, to 
have that moment in their own history.
  I see our dear colleague from New York, Congresswoman Carolyn 
Maloney, who is appropriately attired this evening in full Ukrainian 
spirit, has joined us.
  Welcome.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Thank you so much, Congresswoman 
Kaptur, for your leadership and for organizing a briefing earlier today 
for Members of Congress with head leaders from the State Department on 
the actions that are happening, and for your leadership in passing H. 
Res. 499 today, which condemned the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, 
independence, and territorial integrity by military forces of the 
Russian Federation. We appreciate very much your making that happen and 
helping us to pass that resolution.
  Once again, the Russians have rattled their sabers and tightened 
their grip on the Ukraine. In the past 24 hours they have seized a 
Ukrainian naval base. Even though the Constitution declares Crimea to 
be an integral part of Ukraine, the pro-Russian regional authorities in 
Crimea continue to sever links to Ukraine's capital today, canceling 
incoming flights from Kiev. They have also run out of town any of the 
monitors that have come from the United Nations or the independent free 
world. Flights to and from Turkey also have been suspended.
  The Russians have threatened to confiscate Western assets and refuse 
to even speak to the Ukraine's interim prime minister on the phone. The 
interim prime minister has found $80 billion missing--even loan 
guarantee money. This Congress needs to work together to find that 
money and return it rightfully to the Ukrainian people.
  Yanukovych, the disgraced former President, did the Russians' bidding 
and appealed to Ukrainian military units to refuse to follow the orders 
of the new interim authorities.
  Once again, today, the Russians ignored international norms, calls 
for restraint, and all the cries for justice for all those who were 
gunned down in Independence Square.
  Congresswoman, are you aware that there has been no action to punish 
the

[[Page 4182]]

people who killed community leaders and others in Independence Square? 
Eighty-two people were murdered.
  My constituents have held vigils. They have memorials that they have 
constructed. In their churches they have pictures of every single 
martyred hero and heroine, with their stories. Yet no one has been held 
accountable for that crime against decency and humanity of killing 
innocent people.
  They have ignored Ukrainian sovereignty, treaties, and the rule of 
law, all in an effort to reestablish a disgraced petty tyrant whose 
secret life of obscene opulence included--this is hard to say--gold-
plated toilets--that is what they are saying on the Internet--along 
with pictures of all of his zoos and his house and all kinds of things 
where he wasted the money of the Ukrainian people on wasteful things.
  On the other hand, the Ukrainians have already done the right thing 
for the world around them. In 1994, they signed the Budapest Memorandum 
on Security Assurances and willingly gave up the third-largest 
stockpile of nuclear weapons. They are a peace-loving people. With the 
peaceful stroke of a pen this eliminated a far greater threat to world 
peace than North Korea and Iran combined.
  The key thing the Ukrainians were promised in return was security 
assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial 
integrity or political independence of Ukraine. The U.S. and Russia, 
Congresswoman, were signatories to that statement.
  President Obama has made it clear that America will stand with the 
Ukrainian people. We are all watching everyday on television what is 
happening, and what has struck me the most was the scene where the 
Russians were shooting in the air and shouting at the Ukrainians, and 
they marched peacefully towards them. One general called out: America 
stands with us.
  That is true. America stands with peace-loving people around the 
world and for democracy. We so often take for granted the freedoms, the 
liberties, the democracy that we have that others are struggling for 
around the world.
  Tomorrow, the Ukraine's interim prime minister is scheduled to meet 
President Obama at the White House here in our country. The White House 
has announced visa restrictions on Russians and Crimeans who are 
threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The 
President is working with America's allies to craft economic sanctions 
that will punish and isolate the architects of this aggression.
  Secretary of State John Kerry has traveled to Kiev to mourn for the 
fallen in Independence Square and to bring $1 billion in American loan 
guarantees and pledges of technical assistance. We overwhelmingly 
passed the $1 billion loan guarantee without a cap here in our 
Congress. It was an important vote. We all stood with the Ukrainians.
  Now it is time for Congress to make it clear that we stand with the 
Ukrainian people. The resolution we passed today is a good start--
condemning the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, and 
territorial integrity by military forces of the Russian Federation.
  To paraphrase the Ukrainian anthem: Their persistence and toils 
should be rewarded. Let freedom's song resound.
  We should be asking our friends in Russia, What is their word worth? 
What is their signature worth on any document, on any treaty, or on any 
contract? What is their word worth?
  I would like to invite the distinguished Congresswoman to join me 
this Saturday with the Ukrainian community on Roosevelt Island, named 
after FDR, who went to Crimea for Yalta and spoke of the four freedoms: 
freedom of want, freedom of religion, freedom of democracy, freedom of 
speech. These freedoms are what the people in the Ukraine are fighting 
for, longing for, working for.
  We are going to gather at the Four Freedoms Park in Manhattan to pray 
with, to be with, and to stand with the Ukrainian people who are 
bravely fighting as we speak for their freedoms, for their 
independence, for American values that they want as their values. 
America stands with them. The American people are standing with the 
Ukrainians.
  I thank the gentlelady for having found the Ukrainian Caucus here in 
Congress, of which I am a member, and also for having crafted 
resolutions and so many statements in their support and helping to 
organize in a bipartisan way. Because this country is united. We are 
speaking with one voice, Republicans and Democrats, in support of the 
Ukrainian people.
  I thank the gentlelady for her magnificent leadership.
  Ms. KAPTUR. I thank Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York for 
taking time out of a very busy day to work way over time tonight and to 
be here and to join our plea for the people of Ukraine. Thank you for 
your leadership in the Ukrainian Caucus, and thank you for wearing a 
peasant blouse, which has a long, deep history in Ukraine.
  Ukraine breadbasket to Europe breadbasket to the world--now the third 
largest exporter of grain, despite all of the hardship that the corrupt 
government of that country has placed on their farmers, who simply want 
to earn a living from the soil and share their great gifts with the 
world. They have faced so many roadblocks.
  Thank you for appreciating the artistry and magnificent beauty of 
that country and for your steadfast support of liberty both here and 
abroad. You have just been a magnificent member. We thank you so much 
for coming down here this evening.
  As she was speaking about New Yorkers who are going to gather in Four 
Freedoms Park in New York City, a home to people from throughout the 
world, I wanted to say that there are more Ukrainians living outside 
Ukraine than inside its borders because of the tragedies that have 
occurred there over the last century and more, particularly because of 
the Stalin and Soviet period.
  Ukrainians live in Canada, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, and Australia. 
The pieces of humanity are strewn across the globe, and as I mentioned 
in earlier remarks this evening, millions of her own people were either 
starved to death or murdered. They were killed by their own government, 
the government of the Soviet Union, which tried to eliminate Ukrainian 
culture, Polish culture, the Jewish religion.
  Now we are worried about the Tatars in Crimea because they don't 
share the majority religion. They are a minority. The history of 
tyrannical leaders in that part of the world has, unfortunately, been 
to kill those who don't agree with them rather than to create a civil 
society in which all views can be expressed, even though we might not 
agree with them.
  So we worry about the people there. We are trying to be a voice for 
them here in our own country--a voice for freedom, not for brutality or 
repression. A voice for encouragement, not force alone.
  I want to thank Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman King for 
joining us this evening.
  May God bless America, and may God bless the people and the 
legitimate government of Ukraine as she seeks to build a freedom of 
liberty and justice for all her people.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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