Ukraine Support Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Meeks for yielding me the time.

Five days ago, I was in Ukraine, and I saw what so many of us have seen: truly remarkable courage, absolute commitment to fighting for their freedom, innovation like you would not believe, and, interestingly, something I had not seen before in my previous trips to Ukraine, which was the optimism and joy in the face of missiles and destruction that the Ukrainians are winning.

They are winning because they are executing deep strikes into Russia, which have resulted in 30 percent of Russia's refining capacity being eliminated. They are winning because they are retaking territory, and they are winning because they are inflicting a staggering and horrible number of casualties, 30,000 a month, on the Russians.

The Russians are responding to the fact that they are losing by lashing out in desperate fashion, saying diplomats should leave Kyiv, attacking Romania with a drone, because they know they are losing. This is an inflection point.

We could debate for 6 months or 12 months. We have done that before, and the Ukrainians paid with their lives for that delay, or we could join the fight at the moment that it is being won.

The Ukrainians that I spoke to are the bravest people I have ever seen fighting for their freedom. They want to know one thing. They are wondering whether the people here, in the home of the free and the land of the brave, will be side by side with them. That is all they are wondering. They just want a little help. They don't want our people. They want our technology, and they want to know that we are there with them.

Look around this Chamber. This is the Chamber in which we made the sacrifices to defeat communism. This is the Chamber in which we made the decisions to defeat Nazism. Since 1857, when we have been meeting in this Chamber, we have stood for freedom and liberty. Those who opposed it with buts and conditions, history was not kind to their memory.

Let's do what we have always done and support the brave Ukrainians in their desire for freedom.

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