Rob Portman: “I come to the floor this evening to urge that Congress speak with one voice, at a critical time, on an urgent matter.…”

“I come to the floor this evening to urge that Congress speak with one voice, at a critical time, on an urgent matter. The fight for freedom is being waged in Ukraine right now, and the outcome is going to have profound effects not just in Eastern Europe but around the globe. Russia has invaded Ukraine twice in the last 8 years, illegally annexing Crimea, inserting troops and offensive military equipment into the Donbas region in the east. They have initiated cyber attacks against public and private entities in Ukraine, and they continue to use disinformation to try to destabilize the democratically elected government in Kyiv. Now, the Russians have gone further by amassing more than 100,000 troops under the command of 100 tactical groups on Russia's Ukrainian border. This Russian deployment includes rockets, tanks, and artillery, and it is no longer just on the eastern border of Ukraine but now on the northern border, where Russian combat troops and heavy equipment have moved into Belarus and in Crimea in the Black Sea area. Let me give a little history as to how we got here. Eight years ago, Ukraine made a choice. The people of Ukraine stood up to a corrupt Russian-backed government in 2014 and made a conscious decision to turn to the West--to the European Union, to the United States. I was in Ukraine in 2014 shortly after what is called the Euromaidan or the Revolution of Dignity.…”