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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, remember when President Trump announced he would end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office? Instead, over a year and a half later, President Trump and Vice President Vance have publicly humiliated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and made embarrassingly friendly overtures to the man who attacked his country-- who attacked Ukraine--Russian President Putin. It is hard to understand.
Mr. Putin's response has been to thumb his nose at the United States and any efforts toward peace. In fact, in recent months, Putin has launched some of the deadliest attacks on civilian targets since the Ukrainian war has begun. This invasion by the Russians of Ukraine has now lasted longer than World War I.
Let me repeat that. This invasion of Ukraine by the Russians and Vladimir Putin has now led to a conflict that has lasted longer than World War I.
On Monday, Russia fired a barrage of missiles at several major Ukrainian cities, killing at least 11 people and sparking a massive fire at one of the most important Orthodox monasteries, a UNESCO world heritage site.
And Russia has continued its acts of sabotage and provocation throughout NATO and Europe, not to mention its supplying of targeting information to Iran to hit U.S. interests in the region.
Imagine my surprise when, amid all of these Russian attacks on Ukraine and neighboring countries, the Trump administration sent a U.S. official to Putin's annual economic conference, earlier this month, in St. Petersburg, Russia. We had an official delegation to Putin's economic development conference for Russia, while we were trying to stop them from attacking Ukraine and other countries.
At this annual event, we had the U.S. Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts representing the United States. His name is Rodney Mims Cook, Jr. He was at the event with President Putin, in St. Petersburg, to talk about economic development in Russia.
You may recall that Mr. Cook has been officially helping President Trump with his grandiose ballroom and arch projects.
Why would President Trump give any U.S. legitimacy to this Russia propaganda event, while Putin continues to bomb Ukraine and snub efforts to end the war?
Why would President Trump proceed with recently reported plans to significantly reduce air and naval assets available for NATO operations in Europe, while Putin continues such mayhem?
On Tuesday, President Trump went as far as to signal that the war in Ukraine was not a priority of the United States. President Trump told reporters at the G7 summit that we had ``nothing to do'' with a war that was ``thousands of miles away.''
I could not disagree more. It is long overdue that the Pentagon spend the $400 million in Ukraine assistance, which was appropriated by Congress and signed into law by the President, and the $200 million in Baltic security funds that this Congress passed several months ago.
I raised the point that we had appropriated these funds officially-- signed by President Trump--at a recent hearing with Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Rubio. They indicated to me the funds were just getting ready, any day now, to be moved, which I hope is correct, as these should have been sent long ago and should not be delayed any further.
It is also long overdue for this Chamber to act on Russia- and Ukraine-related legislation.
A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives, overwhelmingly and on a bipartisan basis, passed a bill to provide additional security aid to Ukraine and to tighten sanctions on Russia. That is exactly what is needed to force Russia to finally negotiate peace and stop this attack on Ukraine and its people.
Here in the Senate, we have a broad, bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that has been pending for months without action.
So, while we send the President's ballroom representative to represent the United States of America in St. Petersburg, Russia, and talk about Putin's plans for rebuilding Russia's economy--while that is going on--Russia is attacking the Ukrainians and neighboring countries; and the United States, through the President, has announced that it is none of our business.
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