Marcy Kaptur: “As Western Europe strains with more than 1 million refugees fleeing war in the Middle East and enduring terrible…”

“As Western Europe strains with more than 1 million refugees fleeing war in the Middle East and enduring terrible conditions, I rise tonight to address another growing humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe, in Ukraine. The free world has experienced time and again what happens when it fails to support innocents caught by fate under the brutal grip of war and oppression. Today that reality looms largely over Europe and surely over Ukraine, a nation of freedom-seeking people under siege outnumbered and outgunned due to Russia's invasion on Ukraine's eastern front. So Europe in the western end as well as the eastern faces major displacement and humanitarian needs not seen since World War II. Ukrainians are fighting to choose their own path, and surely America, with our moral leadership, can find a way to help the beleaguered people of Ukraine survive the siege and the onset of a bitter winter, with climates that can be unforgiving, with temperatures falling as low or more than 25 degrees below zero. To not attend to Ukraine now risks Ukraine accessing to the free world. If one looks at the size of Ukraine in Europe, imagine if Ukraine could access to be part of greater Europe. That is all held in abeyance now and also risks millions more potential refugees fleeing from Ukraine to Western Europe for sustenance and more.…”