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Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I am joined on the floor today by my friend and colleague Senator Graham. We have the honor of coleading the U.S. congressional delegation to the Munich Security Conference, which for a great number of reasons, all well-deserved, is still called CODEL McCain. It is the only codel that is named for a Senator who is no longer with us, and it is out of respect for Senator McCain's long tradition of support for that conference, NATO, and the Atlantic alliance, more generally.

This year, obviously things were very different. The Russians were on the border of Ukraine, and two things came out of this conference that I thought were important. One was an early flicker of hope within the delegation that the Ukrainians might actually pull this off. That was supported by none of our briefings. The entire national security establishment had presumed that it was only a matter of time until Ukraine fell. But Senator Graham and I and others were questioning each other during that trip: Is there really no chance?

And the other thing was going after the kleptocrats and the oligarchs around Putin and making their lives miserable. And there was just a wonderful explosion of bipartisan support for that that has now manifested in funds, in laws, in pending bills, in lots of bipartisanship--and Senator Graham and I are going to have a bit of a colloquy about that with the Chair's permission.

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I will say one thing, and then I will hand it over to Senator Graham.

On March 8, I sent out over social media this sentiment:

Keep alive in your heart the possibility that Ukraine could actually win: columns stalled, defense fierce, casualties high, morale low, deserters surrendering, food and fuel snafu, population uncowed.

Since then, we are hearing more and more. I will read four quotes, and the first is from the man we heard from this morning, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, in his speech to the people of Ukraine on March 14, didn't just talk about peace for Ukraine-- although, he did talk about peace for Ukraine, but he also talked about ``our victory.'' Victory. It is an important word to keep in mind.

He is not alone.

GEN Wesley Clark, also on March 14, said:

The battle for Ukraine is hanging in the balance. . . . If we can get enough in there, they'll push the Russians out.

Victory.

It would be a tremendous win for the West.

Anne Applebaum knows probably about as much about this area as anyone. She joined us on the Munich security delegation, and she also spoke afterward on the 15th of March about it. She said:

[V]ictory in this conflict--

Victory--

[V]ictory . . . would provide an enormous, transformational boost in confidence to the entire democratic world.

Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at the Center for Naval Analyses has said the same thing: ``Are [the Ukrainians] in a position to win the war? Yes,'' he said.

I will close with Francis Fukuyama. On the 10th of March, the author of ``The Origins of Political Order'' said the following things. I am quoting from a longer piece selectively.

1. Russia is heading for outright defeat in Ukraine.

2. The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize.

5. The Biden administration's decisions not to declare a no-fly zone or help transfer Polish MiGs were both good ones; they've kept their heads during a very emotional time. It is much better to have the Ukrainians defeat the Russians on their own, depriving Moscow of the excuse that NATO attacked them.

Finally, he said:

A Russian defeat will make possible a ``new birth of freedom,'' and get us out of our funk about the declining state of global democracy. The spirit of 1989 will live on, thanks to . . . brave Ukrainians.

We are here together on the floor in bipartisan fashion to urge that in the press coverage and in our national security conversations about this, we keep open in our hearts and in our planning the possibility of victory for Ukraine.

Senator Graham.

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, in conclusion, let me just thank Senator Graham. He has been an extraordinary leader on the Munich Security delegation year after year, and I think he has a ``McCainian'' view of our foreign policy needs.

I would close by saying, if there is a lesson from Ukraine, it is that oligarchs can throw out a dictator if you put pressure on them. So the kleptocracy initiative is important strategically in Ukraine, and it also puts in motion forces that can diminish kleptocracy and corruption around the world in a way that enhances our rule of law and national security.

The press has tended to buy into the narrative of defeat but not entirely.

Sudarsan Raghavan went to the front for the Washington Post, and he reported back this:

To be sure, most military analysts and Western officials still predict that Russian forces will eventually encircle Kyiv and push into the capital, possibly aided by airstrikes. While this could prove true, it's far from clear whether Russia will prevail.

That leaves open the important planning option of victory for Ukraine.

Then, when bad news comes, sometimes it is just not the whole story. The BBC reported the bad news that Russian forces were already inside the city of Irpin. Well, there is a little bit more to the story than that.

A Ukrainian army officer said that Ukrainian forces were waiting for civilians to evacuate Irpin before ``we start to clear the city of Russians.''

They don't have enough provisions--food, water. They don't have a lot of gasoline. They will get tired, and then we will go and drive them out.

Well, it appears that that counteroffensive is underway right now, as we speak.

As I close, I think all of our hearts and prayers go to the Ukrainian troops, who are trying to drive those Russians out of Irpin and out of Ukraine.

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