[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1966-1967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                UKRAINE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is ironic that the Senator from Ohio is 
presiding because I am going to speak about the situation in Ukraine.
  For the record, the Senator from Ohio, Mr. Portman, the current 
Presiding Officer, and I have now initiated a bipartisan caucus in the 
Senate concerned with the future of Ukraine, and my remarks will 
address that during the next minute or two.
  We are approaching the 1-year anniversary of a dark chapter in modern 
history, the forcible Russian seizure of sovereign territory in 
Ukraine. Perhaps the world shouldn't have been surprised by Russian 
President Putin's brazen attack on well-established international 
norms. We have seen this movie before when it comes to Mr. Putin, in 
Georgia in 2008, using military force to seize the territories of South 
Ossetia and Abkhazia.
  What we are facing in Ukraine is a threat to the foundation of 
European security agreements and norms of the last several decades. We 
are facing the use of military force by Putin to undermine a democratic 
sovereign nation's aspirations to join the international democratic 
community. These ugly threats and actions by Putin must not go 
unchallenged.
  That is why this week I wrote a bipartisan letter, along with the 
Presiding Officer, Senator Portman, as well as Senators Brown, 
Barrasso, Blumenthal, and others to President Obama urging the United 
States and NATO to work together to ensure Ukraine has the defensive 
capabilities and equipment to halt and reverse further Russian 
aggression.
  Thousands have been killed, thousands more displaced. A civilian 
airliner was shot down, murdering hundreds of innocent people, and 
nationalistic fervor and Soviet-style propaganda have been used to 
further rob the Russian and Ukrainian people of their own political 
freedoms.
  Let's recall how we got to this awful situation. In March of last 
year, Russian President Putin used manipulation and military might to 
annex the sovereign region of Crimea--not because Ukraine was about to 
join NATO, not because Ukraine was about to join the European Union, 
not because Ukraine was about to cut economic or historical ties to 
Russia, even if it did sign an association agreement with the European 
Union, and not because Russian-speaking Ukrainians were in any danger.
  No, Putin took this brazen and destabilizing action because he needed 
to rally nationalist sentiment in his own country for his own political 
survival--to protect his own kleptocracy. He did so because he needed a 
war to distract Russians from the frustrations they had over a weak 
national economy, domestic political repression, the elimination of 
Russia's free press and civic organizations, and increasing Russian 
exasperation with the heavyhanded rule of Mr. Putin.
  He did so because his ally and former Ukrainian President Yanukovych 
was democratically removed from office by a unanimous vote of the 
Ukrainian Parliament after he squandered negotiations for closer trade 
ties with the European Union and then presided over the murder of more 
than 100 of his own citizens. Apparently Putin did so because he felt 
aggrieved by the West.
  Instead of inspiring his own people to share the many talents and 
accomplishments of the Russian nation as part of the larger global 
community, Putin has spread a message of victimhood and the West is 
really still the enemy.
  What a waste. What an insult to the proud and talented Russian 
people. Putin's tactics are from the old Soviet playbook, tired and 
dated tactics of propaganda, military power, and domestic repression.
  The resulting destruction and human misery in Ukraine has been 
significant and has been increasing by the day. Thirteen innocent 
Ukrainian citizens, including pensioners and little children, were 
killed in a horrific bus attack last month in Volnovakha.
  The city of Mariupol recently came under shelling, killing 30 and 
injuring another 100 civilians--part of a likely attempt to militarily 
seize another strategic coastal area.
  Ukrainian Government forces and civilians have come under mounting 
fire in the strategic city of Debaltseve, where residents are fleeing 
by the busload. Russian heavy weapons and military personnel continue 
to brazenly flow into eastern Ukraine, despite Putin's refusal to 
acknowledge the obvious. Nearly 750,000 Ukrainian citizens are now 
living as displaced persons within their own country because of this 
offensive action by the Russians.
  The World Health Organization estimates that 5 million Ukrainians 
living in areas where the fighting is fiercest are in dire need of 
basic health care services. People trapped in the cities of Luhansk and 
Donetsk are essentially without any medical assistance. The Ukrainian 
officials say January was one of the bloodiest months in eastern 
Ukraine since the conflict started. All the while, Russia and its 
proxies in eastern Ukraine continue to balk at peace talks and even 
deny their military actions.
  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and Europe

[[Page 1967]]

have worked to strengthen ties with Russia, to help it become a partner 
in the global community. Of course, our interests didn't always 
overlap, and there were disagreements. That is the nature of any 
international relationship. But to whip up anti-Western propaganda on 
state-controlled media and insult Russian people--they deserve more.
  The West didn't lock up Western opposition leaders whose only so-
called crime was to disagree with Putin. The West didn't shut down all 
the independent media in Russia to deny the Russian people a free flow 
of ideas. The West didn't shut down Russian groups whose sole purpose 
was to ensure fair elections. The West didn't conduct a Russian 
Presidential election in 2012 that was loaded with fraud and 
irregularity. The West didn't create a system of corruption around 
Putin that enriches a lucky few oligarchs and tarnishes Russia's 
economy and international reputation. The West certainly didn't focus 
on creating false enemies, both domestic and international, to distract 
from the real work of diversifying Russia's economy.
  Let me be clear. The West did not cause the protests in Ukraine, in 
the Kiev, Maidan Square. The protesters were Ukrainians fed up with 
endless corruption and political malfeasance. I met with several of 
those leaders in Ukraine, and I can assure everyone they were Ukrainian 
patriots, not Western proxies.
  While I have been giving the speech, my friend and colleague Senator 
McCain has come to the floor, with whom I visited Ukraine several 
months ago. He was there during the Maidan demonstrations and has 
firsthand knowledge of how this was a homegrown effort to bring real 
change to Ukraine. I am glad to see him on the floor at this moment.
  New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Friedman 
called what is happening in Ukraine under Putin ``the ugliest 
geopolitical mugging happening in the world today.''
  Perhaps you have seen the recent excellent episode of the PBS 
``Frontline'' documentary entitled ``Putin's Way.'' It meticulously 
laid out the web of corruption and destruction around Putin's rise to 
power. It showed how each contrived crisis at home has been used to 
consolidate Putin's grip on power, and it left little doubt the lengths 
Putin will go to to protect the web of corruption that is ensuring his 
future. What a waste.
  I commend the President for working with our European allies to 
impose severe economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. 
These sanctions have some impact. In fact, Russia's credit rating is 
now reduced to junk bond status. But Putin and his proxies have only 
doubled down, launching new offensives in eastern Ukraine, leading to 
more death and human misery.
  I have concluded, and I believe the Senator reached a similar 
conclusion because of a letter we cowrote this week, that the United 
States has to do more to protect the Ukrainian people. I know it is a 
debating point with some of our European allies as to whether we are 
escalating the conflict. But to leave Ukraine poorly prepared to defend 
its own territory--to leave the civilians in Ukraine so open to the 
aggression of the Russian invaders--is wrong. We can provide lethal 
defensive weapons to help the Ukrainians defend their own homeland, 
their own country, from this Russian invasion. I think we should, and I 
encourage the administration to move forward. I have reached the 
conclusion we eventually have to deal with this bully with force. Force 
must be met with force. We must give the Ukrainian people the means to 
defend themselves and to build a modern democratic nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.

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