H.R. 2471

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine rests on the false historic claim that Ukraine is not a real country but a part of Russia.

Both Ukraine and Russia trace their roots to ancient civilizations centered in Kyiv. Kyiv was a major city when Moscow was a backwater that no one had heard of.

The devastating and brutal Mongol invasion in the 13th century changed everything. Collaboration with the Mongols allowed Muscovy, the predecessor of modern Russia, to become a dominant regional power. Meanwhile, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania exerted control over much of what is now Western Ukraine, giving it a very Western European perspective.

Russia, since the Mongol invasion, has been ruled with an iron fist. By contrast, Ukraine has been home to the Cossacks, who embody a sense of freedom and individual autonomy. Just think of Ukrainian Cossacks as the equivalent of the American cowboys of the Wild West. They hated serfdom and oppressive government and sought to elect their own rulers, which they called a hetman.

A Cossack state using the name Ukraine in what is now Ukraine's southeast became a major power in the mid-17th century. Then, when Catherine the Great conquered that Ukrainian state, she is recorded as having said:

Every effort should be made to eradicate them and their age from memory.

Ukrainians' strong national identity threatens the claim of Russian nationalists to be the heir to the ancient Kyiv civilization. When Ukrainians revolted against the Soviet collectivization of agriculture dictated from Moscow, Stalin seized the Ukrainian wheat harvest and food stores, starving millions of Ukrainians to death. This is remembered as Holodomor, which means ``extermination by hunger'' in the Ukrainian language.

Putin rehabilitated the image of Stalin and banned the human rights organization memorial which investigated Stalin's crimes against humanity. Putin is following, then, in a long tradition of Russian nationalists and the autocrats associated with it who have tried to stamp out Ukrainian national identity.

When Putin talks about being threatened by NATO, he does not mean he thinks the Russian Federation faces a military threat. Until Russia invaded and occupied Crimea and portions of Eastern Ukraine, our NATO allies bordering Russia hosted no troops from other NATO countries. Today, there are a small number of U.S. troops in NATO's eastern flank which were reinforced only as a result of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. But these defensive troops are still dwarfed by the number of Russian military personnel in Russia's western military district. NATO does not have enough troops deployed to repel an invasion, much less to be considered an offensive threat to Russia.

What Putin is really threatened by is that Ukraine, true to the history I just gave you, is asserting an independent path. They don't like that independent path because it separates them from Russia. Ironically--in fact, very ironically--his aggressive actions to date have only unified Ukrainians in Ukraine's determination to be free of Russian influence. Putin has pushed Ukraine toward the European Union and toward NATO.

Putin seems to believe his own twisted view of history, so he convinced himself that the current freely elected government of Ukraine is not supported by the Ukrainian people. Putin thought that he could topple President Zelenskyy and appoint a puppet government.

Putin thought Ukrainians would not fight. Boy, has he been proven to be wrong--really wrong. Putin cannot achieve his goal since the Ukrainians will never, never accept Russian domination. So Putin has taken to leveling civilian areas, cynically agreeing to humanitarian corridors to allow families to escape, only to shoot those who have gathered, bombing maternity wards, killing many women and babies. And, of course, as you see every day on television, the atrocities can only get worse.

We must provide Ukraine with everything it might need to stop the mass murders. That includes military aircraft, drones, anti-aircraft systems, anti-missile systems--almost anything they need--and we must do it now.

I wanted more arms and sanctions before the invasion happened. We saw that invasion coming. Any bureaucratic delays now are unacceptable. Our Eastern European allies acted with lightning speed. We seem to follow them. Our European allies were giving up weapons that they need for deterrence in their own defense, and then we followed. We ought to continue to follow their example; but instead of following, we should be leading. And we should agree to fill any gaps caused by past and future donations of weapons to Ukraine by frontline allies.

Ukraine's success and its defense will prevent a wider war that will cost more in lives and resources. It is in our interest to do everything we can to stop the Russian terror campaign now. We should be leading--not leading from behind. We should lead NATO--not follow NATO.

We should be the great United States of America that we are because we are dealing with a sick autocrat, probably with an ego that has to be satisfied; and it is all totally understandable, except that somebody is very sick.

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