Ukraine

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, conditions are bad in Ukraine, and they are getting worse. Vladimir Putin's war is escalating in severity and scale.

This past Sunday, we received the first public reports that Russia is now deploying proxy fighters to Ukraine. Putin put out the call to action in Syria, Southeast Asia, and Chechnya, and now the mercenaries are pouring in. On Tuesday, we heard further allegations that as many as 1,000 proxy fighters from the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will deploy to Ukraine and attack Kyiv.

This latest news about proxy developments makes it even more obvious how willfully blind the President has been to the disaster unfolding in Ukraine. If you look back at footage from the past few months, it is clear that the Biden administration thought they would be able to talk Putin out of this. They thought they could send in the diplomats, offer a few concessions, pat everyone on the back, and head home. But while they were lining up their talking points, Vladimir Putin was lining up bodies to throw at Ukrainian defenses.

When we first started to debate the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to the free world, it took a lot of time to convince the skeptics of China's tight hold on the global order. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, cheap telecom build-outs, and control over important supply chains, Beijing has created spheres of economic influence all across the globe.

The Kremlin has done the same thing with its proxies. But it is important to remember that this is not new information. The existence of Wagner and other Russian proxy groups is not a secret, and neither is their brutal history.

This won't be Wagner's first time in Ukraine. If fact, that is where these mercenaries actually got started. But for the past decade, they have been wreaking havoc all across Africa. Again, this is no secret. We know for a fact that they have caused chaos and bloodshed in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Central African Republic and that they have helped turn Mali into yet another ``hermit kingdom.'' And what have the Russians received in return? They have gotten access to oilfields, diamond mines, silver, gold, and other extremely valuable natural resources.

By using his proxies, Putin gets the best of all worlds. He is able to force open doors into strategically important areas. He will then suck them dry of their natural resources and make his own name synonymous with violence in the face of resistance.

Furthermore, mercenaries exist outside the bounds of laws and norms, which means groups like Wagner operate with impunity and give cover and plausible deniability to Moscow. In their opinion, it is the perfect legal fiction.

Meanwhile, these proxy fighters have been accused of abductions, torture, and rape. They murder journalists and conduct summary executions on behalf of their Kremlin overlords. They target civilian populations with the specific purpose of terrorizing innocents and eliminating dissent, and when they are done, they simply disappear. That is what Vladimir Putin is preparing to unleash on the brave Ukrainian people.

I sent, and other Members joined me--we have insisted since February 24 that this is not a special military operation; this is a war. But by bringing proxies into the mix, Putin has signaled that he is prepared to do more than inflict violence on key strategic targets; he is preparing for a massacre.

This isn't a head fake. He knows exactly what he is doing because he has done it before. He is following the Syria playbook to the letter, from the booby-trapped humanitarian corridors to his use of cluster bombs, to the presence of proxies to carry out his dirty deeds.

It is no wonder that Moscow has ordered their fighters to travel with mobile crematoriums. It is the only way they will be able to even attempt to cover up the brutality inflicted by Putin's private army.

Over the past few months, Putin has shown us exactly what he intends to do to the brave Ukrainian people. He has made no attempt to hide behind diplomacy. His military commits war crimes in broad daylight for the benefit of the cameras. The introduction of proxies is the natural progression of this increasingly savage attack.

It is time for President Biden to pull the blinders off and decide what America's response ought to be, and he has to do that right now.

We have deprioritized the African theater for far too long, and now it is a breeding ground for glorified terror squads. That absolutely has to change. Russia is using proxies this very moment to destabilize and exploit Mali. We know what they did to the people of Syria. The pictures were too graphic for the nightly news. It is time to remind the world what happened there and make it clear that unless we do something, Ukraine is next.

We must also send a strong signal to Putin, Wagner, and other thugs around the world that there will be no more hiding. Collect the evidence now. Document the war crimes now. Prepare for prosecutions now. We must let Vladimir Putin know that no amount of propaganda can cover up the atrocities that he and his private army plan to commit against the people of Ukraine. But we have to do it before it is too late to free the world from Moscow's grip.

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