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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, my staff found a photo from a congressional trip I made to Eastern Europe in 1991. In one of the photos, I was standing in front of a wall. There is a message on the wall painted in big letters. It reads: ``Freedom for Baltic Countries.''

I remember that trip. The trip had special resonance for me and my family. Eight decades earlier, my mother--only 2 years old--she and her family fled one of those Baltic nations--Lithuania--to escape the tyranny of czarist Russia, and they found freedom in America.

Here I was--her son--returning to the Baltics in a remarkable moment in history. You see, 2 years earlier, in August 1989, 2 million people--I will show you the photo of this because it is historic--2 million people in the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined hands to form a 373-mile-long Baltic chain of freedom. This human chain spanned the three nations and sent a clear message that the Baltic nations wanted to reclaim their freedom and their independence from the brutal occupation first by czarist Russia, then by Nazi Germany, and finally by the Soviet Union.

Months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Baltic chain of freedom forecast the end of the Soviet Union. But who were these countries to defy the Soviet Union? Countries with barely 3 million population in Lithuania, 2 million in Latvia, and 1\1/2\ million in Estonia were setting out to defy the superpower of the Soviet Union.

In February 1990, the people of Lithuania had chosen a new Parliament in their first free election. The new Parliament voted to restore their independence and made Lithuania the first Soviet Republic to declare independence. They were followed quickly by their neighbors, Latvia and Estonia.

You could feel at that moment when I visited the Seimas, which is the Parliament of Lithuania, the hope and history in the air, but there was also a feeling of trepidation and uncertainty. Would these small new democracies be able to preserve their freedom?

In January 1991, the blowback that many had feared occurred. Soviet tanks rolled into Lithuania's capital city of Vilnius. They attacked a crowd of protesters who were armed mainly with prayers and a few old hunting rifles, killing 13 innocent protesters and injuring hundreds more. Soviet troops and tanks attacked protesters in Latvia. I remember visiting Riga and seeing flowers and the candles on one of the walkways near downtown where a Latvian lost his life standing up for freedom in their country.

The Soviet troops could not break the determination of the Baltic people.

In February and March of 1991, the people of these three countries voted overwhelmingly in support of restoring independence. The United States recognized the sovereign new democracies later that same year.

Today, these three countries are prosperous, vibrant democracies, proud members of the European Union and NATO, and supporters of their Ukrainian neighbors who are facing Putin's monstrous military wrath.

When I visited Vilnius in January of 1991--a month before Gorbachev attacked with his tanks--I stood with the brave soldiers and ordinary citizens who filled the square outside the Parliament. They showed me their little arsenal of weapons. They took me back very quietly and secretly. It consisted of about 20 old hunting rifles. They were going to take on the Soviets. The situation seemed desperate and even doomed. Yet Baltic freedom prevailed.

I think of those days often now.

When Russia launched its unprovoked, unconscionable war, we were told Kyiv and the Ukrainian Government would fall within weeks or even days. Our military experts gave us their opinion, and that is what they said. Two months later, thank God, Kyiv is still free. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still Ukraine's President. May God protect him.

Russia has suffered devastating losses on the battlefield and has been forced to retreat. Its forces are demoralized and in disarray. Russia's economy is faltering under the weight of the most punishing sanctions imposed against any nation in modern history.

Just as in the Baltics three decades ago, Russian strongmen have failed to understand the desire of people--even when they are outnumbered, if they are determined to be free and choose their own leaders, they will not be stopped. The Russians have failed to understand the determination of a community of democracy to stand together behind them and defeat the brutality and aggression of Vladimir Putin.

Putin may be able to deceive the people living in Russia for now, but he cannot lie to the world. We know that the Russian military has caused horrible devastation. We see it on the news. And they have committed horrific war crimes against innocent Ukrainian people. One need only look to the barbaric executions and brutality Russia has inflicted on the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. After the Russians fled, Bucha's mayor, Anatolii Fedoruk, described the immediate scenes:

Corpses of executed people still line the Yabluska street in Bucha. Their hands are tied behind their backs with white ``civilian'' rags, they were shot in the back of their heads.

Putin had the sickening audacity to honor the military unit responsible for these crimes, saying this unit had distinguished itself in the protection of the fatherland.

Russian war crimes have not been limited to this situation. Throughout Ukraine, investigators are reporting that Russian soldiers are using rape as a weapon of war and deliberately shelling schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, emergency food centers, and other civilian targets. There are reports of summary executions of individuals and murders of children.

I agree with President Zelenskyy. In his words, he said it is ``time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth.''

The world can't tolerate this barbarity, and the United States must never ever provide a safe haven for anyone who commits war crimes of this nature or crimes against humanity in Ukraine or anywhere in the world. For that reason, I am introducing legislation that gives our government the authority to prosecute non-U.S. citizens who commit such atrocities in other nations and then seek haven, refuge, or seclusion in our country.

My bill is called the War Crimes Accountability Act. It closes a loophole in our current law that prevents our government from prosecuting war crimes unless they are actually committed in the United States or by or against U.S. citizens or members of our Armed Forces.

My bill would also make crimes against humanity a crime under U.S. law so that such perpetrators cannot find--ever--safe haven in this country. What would this mean in practice? If a Russian soldier committed war crimes such as those we see here or crimes against humanity in Ukraine or a person commits such atrocities anywhere in the world--say in Myanmar or in China--they can be tried under U.S. law and face criminal, civil, and immigration consequences. It builds on previous laws I sponsored to make people who commit acts of genocide or who use child soldiers in war accountable under U.S. law. Those bills passed the Senate unanimously and were both signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Despite the heroic efforts of the Ukrainian people, Russian forces continue to lay siege to the eastern part of that country, bombing civilians and forcing an even greater humanitarian nightmare.

Last week, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres traveled to Kyiv. He witnessed the destruction wrought by Russia, and he said:

When I see those destroyed buildings, I must say what I feel. I imagined my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed. . . . I see my granddaughters running away in panic, part of the family eventually killed.

He went on to say:

The war is an absurdity of the 21st century. The war is evil.

So when President Biden announced a substantial new aid package for Ukraine, I said immediately: Count me in. The other day at the Senate Appropriations Committee on Defense, I asked Defense Secretary Austin and General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, about Ukraine's defense capabilities and the President's new request for aid. Both of these military leaders emphasized that continued, substantial support from the United States and its allies will be critical not only for Ukraine's future but also to reassure our allies in the region, in the Baltics, Moldova, Poland.

The $33 billion that Biden has asked for aid in Ukraine will help them withstand the next brutal phase of war and prevent Putin from spreading this malevolent war into other nations.

Let me conclude with a story about another brave soldier in the ranks of civilians, standing up to Putin's menace. Her name is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. She is a leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, another former Soviet Republic bordering the Baltics and Poland.

Last week, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya was in Washington to meet with the leaders of our government. Senator Shaheen hosted a meeting with her. Had Putin's puppets in Belarus not rigged the last election, she might have been elected President--almost certainly would have been. This photo shows Belarusians protesting that rigged election, risking their lives to do it, I might add. For months, thousands of Belarusians protested. Many were arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences. I had been there before. The last dictator in continental Europe is a man named Lukashenka. He has phony elections from time to time. Anyone with the audacity to run against him is sure to lose by Lukashenka's count and almost certainly to be imprisoned immediately.

He did that to this lady's--Ms. Tsikhanouskaya's--husband who is now in jail in Minsk. This photo shows Belarusians with the courage to protest that rigged election. For months, thousands have protested; many have been arrested and sentenced. Today, Vladimir Putin is using Belarus as a staging ground for Russia's assault on Ukraine, but the Belarusian people have not given up their determination for freedom either. Hundreds of Belarusians, maybe more, are fighting in Ukraine today, and we thank them for that courage. Others have helped to blunt Putin's assault by sabotaging Belarusian train lines and crippling Russian supply lines. The supplemental aid package that President Biden has requested for Ukraine, for the weapons to repel Russia's war of conquest and to give the people of Belarus, the Baltics, Moldova, Poland, the security they need to realize their dreams of freedom, dignity, and independence is a statement of the values of America.

I urge my colleagues to come together, waste no time, pass it quickly, send the Ukrainians what they need to win this war.

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