Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I come to the floor of the Senate tonight for the 25th consecutive week while the Senate has been in session to talk about the brutal and illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine by Russia--Ukraine, a democratic nation, an ally of ours who only wants to live in peace with its neighbors.

A lot has happened in the last 6 weeks since we have been in session; however, I want to start by addressing some very serious news out of Poland this afternoon. Today, Russia launched another barbaric salvo of missile strikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including hitting civilian residences and power facilities.

According to reports, during this bombardment today, two missiles went into Poland and struck a Polish village 5 miles from the Ukrainian border, killing two people. Several officials, including a senior U.S. intelligence official and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine himself, have stated that these missiles were Russian missiles.

Now, remember, Poland is a NATO ally. There are U.S. troops in Poland. The Pols have been beside us in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are strong allies. If this is true that Russia launched missiles that, intentionally or unintentionally, struck NATO territory and killed civilians, then NATO's response must be strong and unequivocal. And it must be swift, as soon as we get the proper intelligence from what happened.

At the very least, I believe this is an opportunity for the administration to remove what were already misguided restrictions on U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine needs better aircraft, as an example, to be able to clear its skies of these Russian missiles and the Russian drones, many of which are now being procured from Iran.

And if Russian missiles are now striking NATO territory, then it is clearly in NATO's interest to provide these aircraft to Ukraine. The planes don't have to come from the United States. They may well come from other allies. But the F-16s or F-15s that would be especially useful in this situation would probably have to be approved by the United States before any conveyance could occur. We should provide that approval.

Ukraine also needs longer range missiles. They have been asking for what are called ATACMS missiles that enable them to strike Russian missile launchers in enemy territory, many in Ukraine, in places like the Donbas or the southern part of Ukraine or Crimea. The Ukrainian missiles currently cannot reach those missile launchers that the Russians are using. So the Russians have these long-range missiles, and they don't. This is to avoid more destruction, more tragic circumstances like we saw today, more destruction of civilian targets, and more death.

And, lastly, Ukraine needs other help too. They need more air defense systems. They need more armored vehicles like Abrams main battle tanks, which have the ability to push Russian forces out of its territory and end the Kremlin threat to the free world.

We should be patient and let the experts determine exactly what happened today in Poland, but if these initial reports prove true that Russian missiles struck NATO territory today, then our response must make it very clear to Vladimir Putin through our actions that this aggression will not be tolerated.

I think the reason we are seeing these barrages of missiles, by the way, and drone attacks from Russia on these civilian targets is precisely because Ukraine is winning on the battlefield. So military to military, against all odds, and with the help of the United States and 50 other countries around the world that have provided military assistance to Ukraine, they are making steady progress in this crucial battle for the very survival of Ukraine. I think that is why President Putin is responding as he is.

Two weeks ago, I traveled to Ukraine with my colleague from across the aisle Senator Chris Coons. It was my 10th visit to Ukraine since the first Russian invasion in 2014 when they took Crimea and parts of the Donbas. It is my fourth visit since Russia's war on Ukraine, which started in February of this year.

While we were there, we were able to see how the U.S. and allied help is making a huge difference in Ukraine's stunning battlefield successes since my last visit just a couple of months ago. However, we also heard and saw firsthand the clear evidence of horrific crimes that Russia continues to commit against the people of Ukraine.

Across the frontline, Russia has suffered major setbacks at the hands of Ukrainian soldiers, particularly here in the northeast, where the Ukrainians have taken over important strategic areas, and also down here in the southern part of Ukraine, southeast, where the Ukrainian troops have recently taken over almost all of this blue area, right up to the Nepa River, and actually taken the city of Kherson. Kherson--or Cherson, as it is called in Ukrainian--is a really important city.

Unfortunately, Vladimir Putin, because of these successes, again, has vented his frustration against the innocent civilians of Ukraine. He loses on the battlefield, and he is striking with more missiles and more drones behind the frontlines. In particular, over the past month or so, his military has been striking infrastructure--energy infrastructure, water infrastructure--in various cities of Ukraine. This is a cruel attempt to leave innocent Ukrainian civilians without access to water and in the cold and dark ahead of the upcoming winter.

President Putin cannot defeat the military of Ukraine on the battlefield so now he is turning to barbaric and cowardly tactics to try to terrorize and defeat the civilians of Ukraine. In Kyiv, Senator Coons and I saw the tragic evidence of these cowardly acts. We went to the headquarters of the Ukrainian state-owned power company called Ukrenergo. Ukrenergo is the place where the Russian missiles and drone attacks have focused in the city of Kyiv to try to take out their power but also power in the surrounding area, and we saw that damage that had been done just 2 weeks prior to our arrival.

This example is a situation where there was a control center here, a command center, that was attacked by Russian missiles--again, just a couple of weeks before this photo was taken. What we were told by the CEO of the company, Volodymyr Kudrytsky, is that Russia is trying to break the morale of the Ukrainian people but also literally break Ukraine's energy infrastructure in half. The bottom line is what they are trying to do is create an unpowered eastern part of Ukraine that is not able to access the power that is being generated here in the western part of Ukraine.

We saw this when we were in Kyiv. We saw rolling blackouts. We went to a dinner that night with Ukrainian Parliamentarians, and as we came up to the restaurant, of course, it was entirely dark. We had our dinner meeting by flashlight.

Tonight, much of Kyiv is without electricity. Ukraine needs to be able to defend itself from these barbaric tactics. In our meeting with him, President Zelenskyy passionately asked the United States to help more to obtain these air defense systems they need to avoid these kinds of attacks.

Current Ukrainian air defenses are able to shoot down an impressive number of Russian missiles and Iranian drones, stopping maybe 60 percent, on average, of these weapons. But those that get through are causing enormous damage to civilian targets, including infrastructure, and they are killing employees of these powerplants. They are killing civilians in residential structures.

Ukraine needs more air defense systems from the West in order to close its skies to protect its people ahead of this winter and defeat Russia's latest campaign against innocent civilians.

High-cost conventional systems like the German IRIS system have made a big impact, but they are not enough. More cost-effective options like drone-jamming electronic warfare platforms would make an immense impact to defend the skies at a relatively low cost. The United States, Israel, and other countries could provide those.

We have already provided some crucial systems to Ukraine, but, again, these recent bombardments should give us the sense of urgency to do more.

President Putin and his supporters must also be held accountable for the crimes they are committing. This is why, while we were in Ukraine, we spoke with the Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin. With funding generously provided by this Congress and others, the United States is supporting the Prosecutor General's office and other law enforcement entities across Ukraine to investigate, document, and prosecute Russian war crimes.

However, true justice requires not just Ukrainian courts to be involved here but also international courts. This is particularly true when we are talking about prosecuting Russian senior leadership for condoning and ordering these crimes. That is why, after our visit to Ukraine, Senator Coons and I also joined several of our colleagues in the Senate in The Hague, in the Netherlands, to meet with officials from the International Criminal Court, or ICC, which is headquartered there. We discussed the potential for the United States to support the ICC's efforts to deliver justice for the people of Ukraine and do so in a way that creates a disincentive for future attacks like these.

Like many Members of the Senate, I have been critical of the ICC in the past. I have criticized it for its biased investigations into U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan, as an example, and into Israel. Under previous leadership, I believe it was a seriously flawed institution that had lost sight of its core mission to prosecute real war crimes and achieve results that could act as a deterrent for future war crimes.

However, I believe the new leadership, including prosecutor Kareem Khan, is very promising and has ``righted the ship'' in many ways at the ICC.

On a very limited basis, regarding war crimes in Ukraine, I believe there is an important window of opportunity for the United States and other allies to work more closely with the ICC. We spoke frankly and openly with officials about past differences and the possibility of our support for their efforts in Ukraine. I now look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that we are providing them assistance to ensure that these war crimes are prosecuted.

While in the Netherlands, we also met with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and commended his government for its leadership in the role for justice. The Dutch have sent dozens of law enforcement experts to Ukraine, forensic experts to assist in the collection of evidence of Russian war crimes. And the evidence is everywhere you look.

Every time that Ukraine takes over an occupied part of its country, the war crimes are very evident. We will talk about that in a moment as it relates to what is happening in Kherson.

On all these things regarding support to Ukraine, the Netherlands has been a critical voice in Europe, strongly supporting Ukraine. I am grateful to Prime Minister Rutte and the Dutch people for their steadfast support. We have to come together as a global community to hold Vladimir Putin and his regime accountable, just as we have come together to support Ukraine's fight to defend itself.

Senator Coons and I had a very productive visit to Ukraine and the Netherlands. We saw firsthand how the United States has helped and the urgency of us to continue to help in this fight for freedom.

Since our visit, Ukraine has continued to achieve stunning successes on the battlefield. Last week, Russia announced its troops were going to retreat to the west side of Dnipro River here and leave the city of Kherson. This is a really big deal. Kherson is a provincial capital of this oblast. And, you may remember, it was the first major city to fall to Russia's initial onslaught after the February 24 invasion. In fact, it was the only provincial capital that the Russians had been able to capture. Now it is back in Ukrainian hands, as Ukrainians continue their successful fight for their freedom against this unprovoked assault.

This is a huge victory for Ukraine and equally big defeat for Russia. This was crucial, partly because the horrors on display in Kherson, which are now being uncovered, needed to be stopped. As one Ukrainian who lived under the occupation said:

If there is a hell on Earth, it was here.

Reports go on and on and tell the world of Kherson residents being arrested because they were accused of fighting for Ukraine's freedom, being a part of the freedom fighters to liberate Ukraine.

The Washington Post reported:

[L]ocals were locked up and tortured because they had Ukrainian tattoos, wore traditional clothing, took selfies standing near Russian troops, or simply dared to say, ``Slava Ukraini''--or ``Glory to Ukraine.''

A mother was arrested in front of her teenage son and held for two months on a suspicion of helping Ukrainian forces.

A 64-year-old man was detained and beaten with a hammer for fighting--eight years ago.

A priest was arrested and sent to Crimea, according to a congregate.

That priest has not been heard from.

Even the mayor was arrested. Still, no one knows where he is.

This is why the liberation of Kherson meant so much to the Ukrainians. To the ones who had to live this hell on Earth, seeing their liberators and greeting soldiers meant a new kind of freedom.

This photograph, I think, demonstrates well what is happening. Here is a Ukrainian soldier, a liberator, coming into Kherson, and this is a woman who is feeling this sense of freedom, finally, and liberation and comfort.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a videotape addressed to the Nation:

Today is a historic day. . . . We are regaining Kherson. . . . the people of Kherson are waiting. They never gave up on Ukraine.

And the Ukrainian Government never gave up on their people, as this next photo shows. The people never gave up in their fight for freedom because they knew what it was like to have their freedom stripped from them. They had experienced freedom in Ukraine after 2014, and then they experienced the Russian occupation.

This is a joyful crowd, taking photos as the flag of Ukraine was raised over this community building.

The abandonment of Kherson was clearly a blow to the 9-month Russian invasion, a great loss for Moscow, a win for freedom, and a sign of what is to come as the tide in this war turns, if we can continue to support Ukraine.

This victory was the result of a long, patient, and successful counteroffensive conducted by Ukrainian forces. Over the course of many months, the Ukrainians slowly whittled away at Russian forces with precision artillery strikes, using the HIMARS, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, that we provided them and others have as well.

They struck logistics hubs, command and control outposts, and bridges along the Dnipro River here. So they are able to strike into the occupied areas and essentially keep the Russian troops in Kherson from being resupplied. That is why the Russian troops had to leave, because they couldn't get the supplies because of the successful and patient onslaught by the weapons that we had provided Ukraine.

Ukrainians did it in a way that avoided civilian casualties and avoided the destruction of the beautiful city of Kherson but pushed the Russians out. What happened this week is that Russia finally realized that its position was totally untenable when they had to pull back.

Ukrainian strikes made it possible for Ukraine to win here. We need to continue to provide them the help--the missiles, the HIMARS--so they can continue to engage in massive frontal assaults against these fortified Russian defenses, all along this area.

Once again, Ukrainian soldiers have proven that they have the will; they have the bravery; they have the smarts to win this war. All they need from us and other allies--again, 50 other countries around the world have provided help--is the tools to be able to succeed. This is not a time for us to let up in our support for Ukraine.

I hope the government funding bill that we will vote on next month will include robust amounts of assistance to Ukraine. This victory, in addition to Ukraine's many other gains over the past several months, is a clear indication that this is a cause that is worth supporting. And it is one we can win.

We have to continue to provide the HIMARS but other weapons as well. We talked about the airplanes earlier. We talked about tanks and infantry-fighting vehicles to bolster its current and future counter offenses to liberate sovereign territory.

Two weeks ago, President Zelenskyy asked Senator Coons and me for the United States to provide these important armored vehicles to Ukraine. And yet the administration has still not acted on this request. We make the world's most lethal and most survivable tanks in the world. We make them in the State of Ohio, my home State. They can be used in Ukraine today to outmatch the vehicles used by Russia. Let's provide them.

For months, Ukraine has specifically asked for these longer range missiles we talked about, the ATACMS, that can be launched from HIMARS launchers already in Ukraine and be able to reach these Russian positions to stop some of the missiles from being fired in the first place. And yet the administration has not acted on this request. We cannot deter ourselves from providing these weapons to Ukraine out of a misguided fear that somehow that would provoke Russia. Russia is already escalating the war themselves. What the past 9 months have shown is that they will escalate regardless of what we do. So we need to equip Ukraine to be able to defeat the escalation as it occurs, as it is right now with the barrage of missiles on civilian targets.

I know some of my colleagues have questions about oversight of our assistance to Ukraine. I do, too. We need to be sure that there are significant oversight mechanisms in place. We need to ensure that our aid is going exactly where it belongs and being spent wisely.

When we were in Ukraine, we had the opportunity to talk about this with the embassy, with Ukrainian officials, and also when we were in Poland going into Ukraine at the 101st Airborne, where much of the materiel, the military materiel, comes into Ukraine.

No one is advocating we give Ukraine a blank check. I believe there have to be safeguards in place for how the funding is being spent. By the way, President Zelenskyy totally agrees with that.

And we saw in place some of the things that they have. They have an accounting firm from the United States involved in following the state aid. In other words, the humanitarian aid and the aid to the government.

We have put in place unprecedented policies to be able to end use monitoring for the military equipment going to Ukraine. I can confirm that we are engaged in a very ambitious and very successful effort on this end-use monitoring. There have been literally no documented instances of diversion of U.S. supplied weapons, which is incredible to me--not diversions to the Russians, not diversions to third parties. That may happen at some point. But because of this end-use monitoring and because Ukrainians agree that they need to be accountable for what we are providing them, we have had very good success.

And I think the Ukrainian Government, it is fair to say, has been a very eager and willing partner in all these endeavors. They have stepped up to provide oversight for our equipment and funding because they know that is incredibly important for them to continue to receive it.

They hear the questions about oversight coming from Members of Congress and our constituents, and they are happy to provide the transparency to answer these questions. That is important. And that must continue.

The war in Ukraine is not just measured by the days that flip by on the calendar, although it has been a long time since February. Just ask the Ukrainian mothers and wives who watch the men in their family fight off their country's invaders.

In Kyiv, we met with internally displaced Ukrainian women--mothers, grandmothers, sisters. We were at a World Food Programme site in Ukraine where some of the 7\1/2\ million internally displaced people in Ukraine are coming for their basic needs.

By the way, there are about 7 million people outside of Ukraine, also displaced people. This refugee flow is probably unprecedented when you add it up, over 14 million people.

We heard some heart-wrenching stories. A couple of women sat down with us and told us a story about their cousin who was captured by Russian soldiers in the occupied area up here in the northeast that has now been liberated. This young man was taken into the town square, and in front of his mother and his family, he was tortured. Then he was taken underground and tortured for weeks. They told us that his mother died of grief 10 days after he was captured.

Their tears and those of many others whom we met are confirmed by the stories we are hearing from these prosecutors who are patiently and carefully investigating these war crimes so that people can be held to account.

War is much more than dollars spent, land captured, and the strategic gains made. The war is about innocent children who die, about their loving parents who are worried about how they will keep their homes warm and how they will keep their kids fed as Russia intentionally tries to make Ukraine uninhabitable this winter.

The war in Ukraine is about the schools and the hospitals and the infrastructure that is being attacked, war crimes that will affect the most vulnerable of Ukrainians. The war is about unprovoked Russian aggression toward a nation that only wants to live in peace with its neighbors. The war in Ukraine is about a freedom-loving people fighting for the right for basic self-governance and dignity and democracy.

Russia's war against Ukraine is, indeed, horrific; but allowing Russia to win would only embolden other dictators to start equally horrific conflicts in the future. We have the means to help ensure a Ukrainian victory, along with our allies. And we must ensure that we are doing what we can. That is how we win, and that is how we deter future conflicts.

The United States of America and our allies must stand up in the face of Russian aggression and demand that freedom be preserved. The United States has stood as the shining city on the hill for about two and a half centuries.

In the Revolution of Dignity, as they call it, in 2014, when the Ukrainian people decided to rid themselves of a Russian-backed corrupt government, they saw that shining city on a hill. And they strove to be like it. They said they wanted to be like us and like their European neighbors. They are strong. They are resolved. They know what they are up against. They are determined to push back against the threat of Russian aggression and win.

As Americans, it is our duty to stand up for what we know is true: that in a fight between authoritarianism and freedom, freedom must win.

American aid to the war effort is working. We are providing tools to these strong and resilient people. In the face of ruthless aggression and unprovoked violence, Ukraine has liberated cities and restored hope to millions.

The will of the Ukrainian people is so strong. Likewise, the will of the United States and our allies must be clear. We must stand with them and their worthy cause.

As I heard from Members of Ukraine's Parliament when I was in Ukraine and also we have heard from them here in Washington as they come, freedom must be armed. It is not enough just for the Ukrainian people to seek freedom. They have to have the arms to back it up. That is what we are doing, along with 50 of our allies around the world. Supporting Ukraine during this pivotal moment is critical.

At this juncture, we have to provide them with what they need to defend themselves and retake their sovereign territory from their Russian invaders.

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