Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I thank the distinguished ranking member of the full committee for yielding me the time, and I rise to support liberty for Ukraine.

Let us defeat the spiderweb of tyranny between Putin's regime, Iran, China, and North Korea. We see their evil and their weaponry.

Ukraine does not ask us to fight for her, only to arm her valiant soldiers to push Russia back inside its own borders. Ukraine's soldiers have recaptured half of its stolen territory. Let's arm them to finish the job.

For those who may naively think America can sit on the sidelines and seek isolation, please know this old adage: If you take no interest in foreign affairs, foreign affairs will find you.

I recall Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, 83 years ago, the United States, caught in a stupor of isolationism, closed its eyes as the rest of the world fell into deep conflict.

There is no killing field on Earth like Ukraine. Millions upon millions upon millions of innocent people have died at the hands of deadly dictators--Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin. If Putin is permitted to conquer Ukraine, he will not stop there. He has promised that.

Support from the American people will ensure victory for Ukraine, with the free world girding liberty's shield.

Let's recall the ancient words of Ukraine's poet laureate, Taras Shevchenko, who died almost two centuries ago in a ghastly prison just like Alexander Navalny died a few weeks ago in a ghastly Russia prison. Why? Because they believe in liberty. The time is near when on Ukraine's plains, A shackled folk will burst its chains. Blessed be your children in these lands, By touch of your toil-hardened hands, Then shall our day of hope arrive, Ukrainian glory shall revive.

Today is that day. Let's support liberty for Ukraine and defeat Russian tyranny.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I rise in full support of the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024. Allow the American people to help free Ukraine from Vladimir Putin's illegal, unprovoked, and brutal invasion of its sovereign territory.

Ukraine--the poorest country in Europe--is not asking us to fight for her, ONLY to help arm her.

Let's help free Ukraine from Putin's unprovoked, illegal, brutal invasion of its sovereign territory. Russia should go back inside its own borders.

What liberty-loving person can watch the valiant people of Ukraine confront the 3rd largest military in the world in this grueling war and not rise to Ukraine's defense?

Ukraine's soldiers endured through 2 brutal winters and have recaptured over half the land Russia stole. They have destroyed as much as 40 percent of Russia's fighting force. Bravo to the people of Ukraine, for their miraculous defense of their Homeland.

For those here in Congress who may naively think America can sit on the sidelines, and seek isolation, please be instructed by this old adage: ``if you take no interest in foreign affairs, foreign affairs will find you!'' That proved true on December 7, 1941--83 years ago--when the United States caught in the stupor of isolationism closed its eyes as the rest of the world fell into deep conflict.

America was violently awakened to the reality of tyranny by Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. That terrible event thrust America not just into war, but into a global fight for liberty that shaped the history of the world each of us inherited.

A short distance away from this Capitol stands the National World War II Memorial. Its shining marble is a timeless reminder of the moral strength and power that flows when free people are united and bonded together in a just, common cause. It should also remind us of the terrible costs that are exacted should the Free World allow the emerging Axis of Evil to unleash its aggression on our world. Today, the increasingly destructive coalition of Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, and allied terrorist organizations are uniting as enemies of liberty.

They are intent on upending American alliances and liberty's global security shield. Recall, exhausted at the end of World War II, the Allies negotiated a tenuous peace that allowed Russian tyranny in the form of the USSR's Soviet Union to gulp down half of Europe, as far west as Berlin. It then took another four decades for that usurpation of captive nations to collapse of his own corruption and calumny, beginning in 1989 in Poland. The Free World did that despite the $13 trillion cost (in 1996 dollars). The Soviet Union collapsed of its own failings as the last remaining tyranny on the European continent. The vast region it had encompassed entered into an era of political upheaval and nation-building. With Ukraine, liberty faces not a new enemy, but an old one.

Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine tells us exactly where this rerun is headed. The alliance of free nations simply cannot go backward. If you ask yourself the price of our own liberty, remember over 500,000 U.S. veterans lay at rest on fields, forests, and cemeteries across Europe from World Wars I and II. They bequeathed to us the umbrella of Alliances to push back tyranny and preserve liberty in this modern era.

As a percent of GDP, 15 European countries have so far provided a higher level of aid to Ukraine than the United States. Our Allies are measuring up. Putin is not counting the number of Russian lives he is throwing into this conflict, nor the rubles he is earning off barrels of oil he is selling to fund this war. What he is counting are the number of votes FOR Ukraine that will be tallied in the U.S. Congress. He knows that American support will decide Ukraine's victory in this conflict. So should this House.

If Putin is permitted to conquer Ukraine, he will not stop there. Putin has made his intentions clear as Russian troops already are concentrated at the borders of the Baltic states and Finland, with Russia's consistent violations of NATO airspace and territorial waters.

If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, or if liberty's alliance grows tired of a forever war, Putin is more likely to test our resolve over smaller, much harder to defend NATO member nations. That would involve our troops directly.

America can't repeat the mistakes of the last century by withdrawing our support and then inevitably forcing the Free World to pay a higher price for freedom as tyranny deepens its roots. America must be resolute.

This Congress must pass support for Ukraine to secure liberty for Ukraine. We bow to the valorous, persevering, industrious people of Ukraine. We bow to those willing to fight and die for their liberty. The support of the American people will ensure victory for Ukraine, victory for the Free world, and strengthen liberty's shield in this new, dangerous era of hybrid warfare.

Ukraine's revered poet laureate Taras Shevchenko--who was a clarion, sacrificial voice for liberty--was tortured and died in a ghastly Russian prison in St. Petersburg in 1861. He had penned on December 24, 1845: ``The time is near when on our plains A shackled folk will burst its chains. Ask yourselves by whom were you enslaved? To the dead, the living, to those yet in Ukraine, My country must tell all who live in Ukraine Then in your own house you will see justice, strength, and liberty. Blest be your children in these lands, By touch of your toil-hardened hands, There shall our day of hope arrive. Ukrainian glory shall revive! No twilight but the Dawn shall render And beckon forth into novel splendor.''

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