Supporting the People of Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SPARTZ. Mr. Speaker, I am very humbled to stand on the floor of this great institution with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to co-lead this important resolution and to show that this greatest country, the leaders of the free world, are going to stand up to the atrocities and tyrannies that are happening right now.

I am very proud to have a strong, freedom-fighting Ukrainian heritage. I actually was born in the Soviet Union, when Ukraine was under that evil country.

I am so proud that strong, brave Ukrainians are willing to fight again and again to be free. It should inspire all of us. Their bravery and actions are unbelievable. It should teach us, and maybe remind us, what it means to be a free country and how hard it is to get your rights and freedoms back when you lose them. We had so many people die for our freedoms, so let's value and cherish them.

I am very happy to see that this institution, when times are tough, when we have to get together, we can get together and show our allies we will stand together and show our adversaries and enemies we will stand together. Not just stand together, but we will also lead the world.

I also want to tell the Ukrainian people that the American people are inspired and humbled. They see your struggles and pray with you and stand with you. This resolution from we, the people, from this United States Congress, is evidence of it.

I also want to tell the Russian people--I actually have some Don Cossack heritage--I know it is tough for you. I know what President Putin has done to you. It is awful. But you need to have the backbone to stand up, or we will find you in history worse than you could imagine. So you stand up and stop this atrocity before it causes more damage. What is happening there on the ground, it is not a war. It is slaughtering, killing of the Ukrainian people. You are killing your fellow Orthodox Christians and East Slavs, and they went through history with oppression and suppression. How can you stand with that? I know that your propaganda is strong. I know they tell you things that are awful. But open your eyes. Don't be part of it. Tell your government that they have to stop this elimination and extinction of people.

I also want to thank everyone here in this country for loving freedoms, for supporting freedoms, and being willing to be part of this challenge on the right side. Our actions should be decisive. In times like this, they require strong leadership and strong actions.

We, as an independent branch of our Government--I always say we are co-equal, but first among equals because we do have the power of the purse and the power of war. So we have a lot of powers for a reason, and that is why our Founding Fathers gave us this power, because we are the people who should put pressure on our President to be more decisive and strong and have some stronger actions.

On sanctions, we have to be tougher. We need to go after the energy sector. We need to make sure that a lot of oligarchs that are not on the list are there, they should be on the list, the key oligarchs. They understand that it is not just the Russian people that will be feeling the pain, that already they suppressed and stole money from them, but they will start feeling the pain.

We also need to make sure that we will have a way to affect the financial system much more decisively.

We also need to make sure that these war crimes are going to go to international courts, and these people that make decisions on killing, on genocide, and using illegal weapons will also bear some responsibility.

I also think we have a responsibility to provide safe passage in the humanitarian corridor, and I hope we will have other allies working with us and help us on that.

But most important, we need to make sure that we will provide proper defensive legal aid to the Ukrainians that they can defend themselves from this extermination before it is too late. We must act, and I am very honored to be part of this effort to show that we are willing to lead as this institution.

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