Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on Russia's ongoing and illegal occupation of Ukraine. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine where I saw firsthand the effects of nearly 5 years of Russian occupation, aggression, and hostilities suffered by the Ukrainian people. Since Russia's illegal seizure of Crimea in March of 2014 and their subsequent invasion of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region the following month, over 10,000--10,000--people have been killed and many more have been wounded or displaced in the fighting. Hiding behind so-called pro- Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, the regime of Vladimir Putin has indiscriminately targeted both civilian and military targets, across the line of contact, in flagrant violation of the Minsk ceasefire and the law of war. In fact, shelling was occurring just 1 day prior to my visit to the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front, even saying it now, before my colleagues in the Senate, the phrase seems almost surreal and harkens back to a bygone era in which the Cold War dominated our political landscape. The first time I visited Ukraine was in 1989--1989--as part of an agricultural exchange program. The Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, and the spirit of independence, freedom, and self- determination was gaining steam. My gracious Ukrainian hosts didn't want to discuss farming. It was an agricultural exchange, but they didn't want to discuss farming. They wanted to know what it was like to be an American.…”