[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     A THREAT TO LIBERTY IN UKRAINE

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, a threat to liberty anywhere is a threat to 
liberty everywhere.
  Freedom's bell rings now for nations around our world to choose 
between the fledgling democracy of Ukraine or the dictatorship of 
Russia.
  As the Russian bear eats its way through Ukraine's easternmost 
regions with abandon, the scene seems almost surreal as the world waits 
while Putin's pushes his illegal aggregation further.
  The questions for freedom loving nations are:
  Who defines freedom's edge for Ukraine? Surely, not Russia. Where 
does the edge of defiance stop? And who will push the bear back in its 
cage?
  Aggressor Putin says he will send Russian peacekeeping forces to the 
nation he has just invaded illegally. That would be a line for 
``Saturday Night Live'' if it were not so real.
  When the Budapest Accords were signed in 1994 and Ukraine voluntarily 
gave up the third-largest cache of nuclear weapons on Earth, it was 
left defenseless, but was promised by our government, the United 
Kingdom, and Russia to respect the independence, sovereignty, and 
existing borders of Ukraine.
  So let me ask our government, the United Kingdom, and Russia: Do 
words mean anything, or were they merely artful conveniences at the 
time?
  Now, let me ask NATO nations: Where is the edge of liberty you will 
defend?

                          ____________________