[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1922]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           UKRAINE ASSISTANCE

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I wish to speak about the Ukraine. Lord 
knows the President of the United States has enough on his plate, and 
he is trying to make the right decisions about what to do in giving 
assistance to the Ukrainian people and to the Ukrainian army to hold 
off Vladimir Putin's troops that are masquerading as rebels but, in 
fact, are bringing in Russian equipment and Russian soldiers who put on 
different uniforms. It is because of that that I think the wise choice 
would be for the United States to give lethal armaments to the 
Ukrainian people.
  I was there in August. I spoke with all the members of the 
government--the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, the Foreign 
Minister, the head of their Defense Council. At the time, I was 
surprised that they did not ask for lethal assistance but instead 
wanted up-to-the-minute intelligence, which was so important, and 
training. If my memory serves me correctly, in the Defense bill we 
provided about $350 million for that assistance. But the question of 
lethal armaments so that they can withstand the Russian tanks--if we 
want them to be successful--is exceptionally important in this 
Senator's mind and point of view.
  There is another reason. Mrs. Merkel is in town today, and her 
position is that she does not want Europe to provide lethal assistance. 
Well, Germany, of course, is not sharing a geographic line with the 
former Soviet Union, now Russia, and Germany is not feeling the heat, 
even though a major component and member of NATO, like so many of the 
other NATO members farther to the east.
  Some of the Baltic States--Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania--have 
substantial Russian populations. They are frightened of the realistic 
possibility of Putin, who has successfully taken a Russian-speaking 
part of Ukraine--namely, Crimea, which fell into his hand like a ripe 
plum--now moving on other parts of eastern Ukraine to establish a land 
bridge down to Crimea. What they fear is that suddenly the Russian army 
will amass on their border and use as a pretext, as Putin has done in 
eastern Ukraine, the coming in and rescuing and protecting of the 
Russian-speaking elements of those particular countries, particularly 
in the Baltics. There is a huge percentage of the population in Estonia 
that is Russian, likewise in Latvia and also Lithuania.
  I met with the President of Lithuania, a woman whom a lot of people 
refer to in very admiring terms as a tough cookie, and that is apparent 
when you meet her. But the concerns about the Russian aggression are 
clearly there. They are very concerned that if eastern Ukraine falls, 
they will be next.
  I think that is another reason that these courageous people who, 
after the break up of the Soviet Union, had so many years of corruption 
and bad government--now having thrown off the shackles of corruption, 
having a new government after all of those protests in the center of 
the capital city of Ukraine--I think it is incumbent upon us to help 
that little country defend itself against Russian aggression. When a 
Russian tank is bearing down on you, you need something that can 
penetrate the steel armor of that tank in order to stop that tank and 
all the other tanks from advancing.
  I will stop right there and shift gears.

                          ____________________