Supporting the People of Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the chairman of this committee, for yielding. We have traveled in various parts of the world together. We have seen pain, and we have seen progress. We are seeing pain now, and all I can say with respect to the remarks that were just made by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), amen.

I thank Mr. McCaul for his working not as a Republican, and I thank Mr. Meeks not as a Democrat, but as Americans, Americans confronted with a crisis, a crisis for democracy, a crisis for the global community. I thank them both because they have, in the best traditions of this House and of this country, worked together to bring to the floor a resolution, which, indeed, speaks to the pain and to the moral responsibility of all those who love freedom and democracy.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, as Russian missiles rained down on the cities of his country, Ukraine's heroic President, President Zelensky, virtually addressed the European Parliament in Brussels.

Mr. Speaker, President Zelensky spoke of a horrendous missile attack that had just struck the main square of the besieged city of Kharkiv. ``This,'' he said, is ``the largest square in Europe . . . it is called `freedom square.' '' He went on to say: ``And believe you me, in every square today, no matter what it is called, it is going to be called `freedom square.' In every city of our country. Nobody is going to break us. We are strong.''

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, he didn't have to tell us that. We have seen that strength. We have seen that courage. We have seen that determination in the face of overwhelming force confronting them.

These past 7 days, the people of Ukraine have indeed shown the world they are strong, they are courageous, they are united, and they are resolved to defend their freedom and their democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I served as co-chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, otherwise known as the Helsinki Commission, for 10 years from 1985 to 1995. It was a historic time where democracy won the Cold War. It was in the final years of that Cold War that Ukraine in the nineties emerged and was guaranteed essentially by the international community, but certainly by Russia and the United States, that they would be a sovereign nation not just in the east but in the west as well.

I had the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to travel to Kyiv, to Riga, to Vilnius, to Tallinn, to Sofia, to other cities behind the Iron Curtain on a relatively regular basis during those 10 years, certainly in the 6 years from 1985 to 1991. In each place I saw a ``freedom square'' where either before or shortly after my visit people would gather to demand the right to choose their own future, their own leaders, and their own laws.

I saw in many others who traveled to those cities and to those countries a yearning, I saw the commitment to democracy, their courage and determination.

President Zelensky is correct: ``Wherever democracy thrives, every public square is a `freedom square.' '' It may have another name, but it is a ``freedom square.''

Americans have sacrificed much over the generations to secure our freedoms and to our great credit the freedom of others around the world.

I tell people, Mr. Speaker, that America is the nation that had the most hegemony of power and used it so without acquiring the nations that it protected or imposing its will on the nations that it protected which is the least acquisitive superpower in the history of the world.

Americans have sacrificed much over the generations to secure our freedoms and the freedoms of others. The land of the free and the home of the brave.

Now, the tyranny and autocracy of Vladimir Putin tests us again.

Though American forces will not be engaged directly in this war, that does not mean that America is sitting on the sidelines. Far from it. And we must be engaged. This resolution speaks to engagement.

President Biden has unified not only NATO but a broad coalition of the world's democratic nations and those committed to the post-war order of respecting peace, borders, and, yes, diplomacy.

Dozens of nations have partnered to stand up to Putin and to support the freedom fighters in Ukraine. Together, we have imposed punishing sanctions that are already hurting Putin's regime.

We are already seeing thousands of Russians taking to the streets in their country to demand that Putin end this unjust war, this unprovoked war, this criminal war, and stop the unnecessary death and destruction on both sides for which Vladimir Putin alone bears responsibility.

Today, this House, the people's House representing the greatest democracy in history, the leading democratic nation in the world, is expressing our support for the Ukrainian people in their struggle for freedom and self-government.

I hope and I urge that this resolution pass with not a single negative vote. Let there be no mistake throughout the globe that, yes, we have differences between Republicans and Democrats, but we in this House are all Americans committed to freedom, committed to democracy, committed to the peaceful relations between nations.

It recognizes the egregious and inhumane actions undertaken by the Russian military at Putin's command, including the shelling of civilian targets and the killing of innocents in order to instill fear and weaken Ukrainian resolve.

We know that resolve, however, Mr. Speaker, will not be broken. We have seen it in the eyes of the President, and we have seen it in the eyes of the citizens in those freedom squares.

This resolution further recognizes importantly that Russian aggression against Ukraine did not begin last week. It began as soon as the Ukrainian people rejected a Putin-backed autocrat, established a true democracy, and sought the security and protection of stronger bonds with its fellow democracies in Europe and NATO, which, of course, it had every right as a sovereign nation to do.

Putin sent his forces to occupy Crimea. Mr. Speaker, in my view we were not as determined that that should not happen at that time. We must not repeat that mistake. Putin instigated a violent, separatist uprising in the Donbas region that has festered for 8 long years.

His unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine comes after it became increasingly clear that the separatists could not achieve Putin's expansionist aims on their own. He tried to do it surreptitiously through agents. It did not succeed, so he took the next step, a tragic, criminal step.

This resolution also makes clear that the United States will continue to support Ukraine by providing both military and humanitarian assistance while maintaining painful sanctions against Putin for as long as he pursues this war of choice.

In no small part, this resolution puts into action the promise that President Kennedy made when he took office at the height of the Cold War.

This will not be a free war for any of us in the free world. It is going to cost us something. Gas prices may go up. But we want to stand on freedom's side.

I am in politics largely because John Kennedy ran for President as I was at the University of Maryland, and I was inspired by his call to service.

I would urge all of you to read one more time John Kennedy's inaugural address. It is an extraordinarily inspiring address, an address not only to the American people, but to the entire world. And in it he said this: ``Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty,'' and of those freedom squares to which President Zelensky referred.

Mr. Speaker, Americans and our allies are being asked to pay a price, to bear a burden, to meet some hardship in the days and weeks and months ahead, not to sustain fire, not to live in buildings being bombed, not to have to move from their home to a refuge or another country, but some hardship.

I know that our fellow Americans are up to the task. They have always been up to the task because those who say we take freedom for granted, who say the cost is too high, the burden too great, have always underestimated the American people.

When we see Putin's corrupt, evil, and menacing grab for power and tyrannical control, we are reminded of the tyrants and evil ideologies that Americans have fought and vanquished through our collective commitment and shared sacrifices.

Mr. Speaker, today, let us make this House Freedom Square. Let us stand with those who are assaulted by a tyrant.

The generation before mine, John Kennedy referred to England as ``Why England Slept.'' If we do not meet this tyrant now, we will pay greatly later.

I urge my colleagues to stand with these brave Ukrainians who stand for freedom and liberty and international law. Let us all overwhelmingly, unanimously vote for this resolution and send a message, not just to Putin but to all the tyrants of the world who would test us once again, that we will not blink.

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