THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIA'S BRUTAL ATTACK ON UKRAINE

THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIA'S BRUTAL ATTACK ON UKRAINE

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)] [House] [Pages H831-H834] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF RUSSIA'S BRUTAL ATTACK ON UKRAINE The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Houlahan) is recognized until 10 p.m. as the designee of the minority leader. General Leave Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania? There was no objection. Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, this week marks a very solemn anniversary. It is the anniversary of Russia's brutal attack on Ukraine. Three years ago, Russia started this war by invading Ukraine, not the other way around. I repeat: Three years ago, Russia started this war. I am utterly disgusted that President Trump would refute this absolute truth. I am equally horrified by President Trump's characterization of President Zelenskyy as a dictator who does not want peace. I was with President Zelenskyy just last week in Germany for the Munich Security Conference. He is an honorable and earnest leader, a man who has even offered to step down from the Presidency if it would guarantee the freedom of his people. {time} 2120 President Trump's blatant lie and absurd insult is a lie directly out of Soviet-style propagandist playbooks. It is Putin who wants to take Ukraine's resource-rich land. It is Putin who wants to strip its people of their rights and their freedoms, and it is Putin who wants to destroy another European democracy. It is Putin who is a cancer on the world, a liar, a torturer, a murderer, and a war criminal. It is appalling to see our President of these United States, expected to be a reliable standard-bearer of democracy, align himself and as a result ourselves so closely with our adversaries, even organizing a sit-down to determine the fate of Ukraine without Ukraine at the table, and without the input of our European allies at all. Whatever comes out of these meetings will not be a peace agreement. It will instead be a Russian power grab and an appeasement of war criminal Putin facilitated by the United States, an illegitimate peace. It is all horrifying. It is all infuriating, and it is all antithetical to our American ideals. As President Trump and his administration publicly trash our allies, undermine the strength of NATO, and decimate our international aid programs, our adversaries are greedily and happily waiting to fill the gaps that this administration is deliberately creating. On Monday, the United States joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Sudan, and Hungary--I will name them again: Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Sudan, and Hungary--a group of countries I never would like us to be associated with, in voting against the United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression and demanding the immediate withdrawal of Putin's forces from Ukraine. To quote my Republican colleague and dear friend, Congressman Don Bacon: The Trump administration royally screwed up on Ukraine. Another anniversary is fast approaching. Indeed, on April 20 of last year, 101 Republicans voted to support Ukraine. I am really glad that Representative Bacon is speaking out about President Trump's actions, but I wonder where are the rest of his colleagues? I hope that the other 100 Members who supported aid to Ukraine in April will be as brave as Representative Bacon and speak out against this administration's ridiculous and dangerous actions. I want to emphasize how important it is that the American people hear President Trump's own words, see his own actions, and be appropriately outraged. President Trump's disavowal of Ukraine and his cozying up to dictators puts us here in the United States at risk as well. President Trump's turn towards authoritarianism leaves us exposed politically and economically. Scorned allies could pull out or change their free trade agreements, cause shortages in imported goods, including food and oil, pharmaceuticals, and more. President Trump campaigned on bringing down costs, but his very actions right now are indeed undermining the value of the dollar and driving up inflation. We have heard over and over again from the American people that the prices of essential goods are already too high, and President Trump's actions will only hurt our attempts to bring down these costs. America's global leadership also helps to keep Americans safe, too. President Trump turning his back on Ukraine isolates us and undermines our strength, the strength of international institutions, and the security networks that work, like NATO. This encourages NATO allies to question our own alliance and allegiance. It, in turn, causes our allies worldwide to do the same, and those who are considering with whom to form alliances, and there are many, it causes them as well to turn away from us. It gets worse. With President Trump actually allying himself with China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, these countries now seemingly have America's explicit backing to spread their influence, and in some cases to spread their force, like we have seen in Ukraine. This will undoubtedly cause people to flee oppressive regimes and create new regimes, who will be inspired by this global democratic back slide. President Trump claimed he was going to reduce this kind of migration, but the political turmoil he is causing will, in fact, make it worse, pushing people to seek safety outside of their own home country. We can't turn our back on Ukraine and the world, and we cannot expect that the consequences of that decision will not reach our shores. The American way of life is reliant on our global reputation and interconnectivity. President Trump is doing his very best to tear that all down. President Trump must reverse his dangerous position. He must stop this gamesmanship, and he must recommit to our longstanding alliances instead of realigning ourselves, the United States, with dictators. I yield now to my esteemed colleague from the great State of Ohio, the very honorable Marcy Kaptur. Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman so very much for allowing me to speak this evening and to also thank her for her service to the United States of America in our military. She knows the cost of liberty. There couldn't be a better Member of Congress than Chrissy Houlahan, I will tell you that. A lot of Americans perhaps in the newer generations don't understand what Russia is capable of, so I refer them to two books if they are interested, and I hope they are. One is ``Bloodlands'' by Dr. Timothy Snyder, now at Yale University, who discusses the history of the region that we are talking about and what happened yesterday at the United Nations. Another book is ``Red Sparrow.'' I would recommend people don't read that in the evening, but during the day because they will learn more about how Russia both operates now and has always operated. To give a little history, before the collapse of the murderous dictatorship that was called the Soviet Union that occurred in 1991 and had extended all the way from Russia all the way across Europe to Germany to East Berlin, which has been free since 1991, a great President, Ronald Reagan, served this Nation. He was elected twice. He correctly identified Russia as the ``evil empire.'' Ronald Reagan had been an actor in Hollywood and fought to remove Communists from the ranks of the Screen Actors Guild in California, where he met his wife. That particular [[Page H832]] effort by Reagan took great courage because he could have been killed. That is what it is like to deal with Russia as the Soviet Union or the empire now. Another Republican President during my service was George W. Bush. He named Russia and North Korea as the ``axis of evil.'' We could add Iran and other countries. Never before at the United Nations has any U.S. President ever stood with the dictators of Russia. Those countries that voted with Russia yesterday are state sponsors of terrorism. Russia understands terror. That is what she does. For the United States to stand beside Russia, North Korea, and Belarus at the United Nations, it is appalling. It is appalling. Russia's atrocities go back hundreds of years. During World War II on the soils of Ukraine, 14 million people were murdered. This is the tradition of Putin. If you do not know that, you are naive. Wake up. Wake up. Even China abstained from the vote yesterday. Aligning with these countries which past Presidents have called the epitome of evil on Earth is shocking. The very fundamental purpose of this Nation is liberty. That is why we are here. This isn't some game, and it is not about strategic metals or very precious items that are underground somewhere. It is about something much more precious-- liberty. To see that happen at the U.N. yesterday, I thought, what have they been drinking up there? Ukraine is the scrimmage line for liberty on the Continent of Europe today, and no President of the United States should cavort with dictators. We have always been the bastion of freedom. Our people have died for it, defending these ideals around the world. Yesterday, President Trump cowered and appeased one of the most dangerous dictatorships in the world. {time} 2130 Mr. Speaker, it is shameful. It is un-American. It is not patriotic. It is almost traitorous--maybe it is traitorous to do that. We know Russia. We know North Korea. We know Iran. They don't stand for liberty. They are part of the new spiderweb of tyranny that is poised against us, if anyone is paying attention anywhere in this country. The actions to vote with them and against Ukraine is a blotch on America's record as a champion for a f