Introduction of Sailors Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise with my fellow co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus to introduce the SAILORS ACT, or the ``Stopping Aggressive Incursions on Liberty by Ordering Russian Sanctions Act.''

This bill would direct the Administration to sanction 24 senior officers of the Russian Federal Security Service and its border patrol until it releases all 24 Ukrainian sailors and the three vessels it illegally seized in the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018.

On that day, an unprovoked Russia brazenly fired upon and took hostage 24 Ukrainians sailors in international waters. The sailors now languish in Russian prisons in Moscow under dire conditions.

Tragically, this is just the latest in a series of dangerous and malicious steps Russia has taken to undermine Ukraine's democratic progress and the international rules-based order.

Since illegally invading Crimea in 2014, Russia now seeks to tighten the noose around Ukrainian coastal waters including building a barrier in the Kerch Strait to starve Ukraine of vital naval commerce.

To date, Russia's illegal war in Eastern Ukraine has led to the death of over 10,000 innocents and the displacement of millions.

The international community must not stand idly by as Russia increases its aggression in Europe and its efforts to undermine democracies globally--including in the United States. The United States and the free world must continue to raise the costs of Russian aggression to protect those at the edge of liberty.

This bill sends a message to the Ukrainian sailors and their families that the American people have not forgotten their immense sacrifice and heroic struggle to protect their nation's democratic future. We call on Russia to immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and safely return them back to Ukraine.

I urge my colleagues to join in this important effort and call for the bill's swift passage.

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