Supporting Ukraine's Independence

Floor Speech

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, we want peace. Ukraine desperately wants peace but not as a result of what would be in effect a Putin-Russia victory.

We want peace and not appeasement that would reward a brutal Russian invasion with land gains that officially recognize Crimea as Russia, with land gains that give de facto recognition to four other large areas. In time, then Putin would recognize his ability to come back and finish the job. We want peace but not without security assurances from the U.S. and its allies. We want peace but not without accountability.

I stood on the grounds of Bucha and the mass grave. I have seen the flattened maternity hospital. I have learned of the tens of thousands of kids kidnapped by the Russians. These Ukrainian children were taken into Russia, never to see their families again.

We want peace but not with what would, in effect, be a message to autocrats and tyrants across the world that they have a green light to take lands not their own. Recognizing that Putin's ambitions go well beyond Ukraine to Moldova, Georgia, the Baltics, and Poland, coupled with this administration's proclamation that, in effect, NATO is on its own.

I paraphrase the concerns raised by Secretary Austin and General Milley that if we don't stop Putin's aggression now, then we will pay later with more blood and dollars.

We must recognize at the same time that we simply can't trust Putin to keep a deal, which is why the security guarantees are so important.

Indeed, our leadership here is a strategic and moral imperative, but this administration has never said who it wants to win this war. It has blamed Ukraine for starting the war. It has put absolutely no pressure on Putin to negotiate in good faith while it paused aid to Ukraine.

The President has finally recognized what is obvious to the rest of the world: Putin is in no hurry to be engaged in peace talks.

He knows he has a 4- or a 6-1 manpower advantage, and he treats his troops as cannon fodder. He knows that this administration will not provide another aid package.

So, we have to ask ourselves: Why does this matter at this point?

It is for the same reasons we fought the Second World War, to prevent a sovereign democratic nation from being wiped off the face of the Earth, for the same reason we formed NATO, and for the same reasons we formed the United Nations.

It is effective and important now to remember the Presidents who have echoed these warnings and these concerns. In FDR's last inaugural, he said that we have learned that to have a friend, we need to be a friend and that our welfare is dependent upon the welfare of nations far away. In John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, he talked of opposing any foe and supporting any friend to aid the causes of liberty. Finally, ironically, is the Reagan doctrine, which we have supported ever since, that we will support our allies against Soviet aggression at any cost. Unfortunately, the Reagan doctrine seems to be lost upon what was once the party of Reagan.

It is for those reasons that we must continue this and do what we can to support our allies and our friends because it is in our interests, too.

Mr. Speaker, I will finish with Slava Ukraini.

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