Rodney Frelinghuysen: “I thank the chairman for yielding and for his sponsorship of this resolution with Mr. Engel and Ms. Ros- Lehtinen. Mr.…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding and for his sponsorship of this resolution with Mr. Engel and Ms. Ros- Lehtinen. Mr. Speaker, ISIL is on the march. Civil war appears imminent in Yemen. Libya has now become a full-fledged terrorist training center threatening all of north Africa. And Iran moves closer to nuclear capacity every day. So it is understandable that the attention of the media and the American people seem to be focused elsewhere other than on Ukraine. But I just returned a week ago from leading a bipartisan delegation of the Defense Appropriations Committee to Ukraine, and I am here to report that the situation there is downright alarming. Today, weeks after agreeing to a cease-fire, Vladimir Putin is using Ukraine as a test bed for a new type of warfare by using proxy insurgents and Russian special forces, army troops, to carry out his campaign to reclaim Ukraine as part of the old Russian empire. After annexing Crimea a year ago, he is transforming that peninsula into a heavily armed Russian camp--a platform indeed. Mr. Speaker, blankets, night-vision goggles, and meals that are ready to eat are not enough. Ukraine needs non-NATO ally military support, and it needs it now. Ukraine's courageous President, Petro Poroshenko, appealed to us again to provide lethal weaponry--antitank weapons, small arms, and antiaircraft systems--to help them defend their territory from the Russian onslaught.…”