Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
Portman Delivers Final Senate Speech on the Importance of the United States Standing With Ukraine
December 20, 2022 | Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC – This evening, on the 300th day of Russia’s brutal, illegal, and unprovoked war on Ukraine, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), the co-chair and co-founder of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, delivered his final speech on the Senate floor about the importance of the United States continuing to support Ukraine with economic, military, and humanitarian aid as it fends off Russian aggression. This marks the 29th consecutive week while the Senate has been in session that Portman has spoken on the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded.
Senator Portman made specific note of the children lost during this needless war, and talked about the crucial need for the United States to send more military equipment like the Patriot Defense System, Abrams tanks, Javelins, and HIMARS or High Mobiliary Artillery Rocket Systems to Ukraine. He urged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the government funding bill which includes funding for Ukraine against Russia’s brutal onslaught. He also pointed to Ukraine’s many successes on the battlefiend as evidence that Ukraine can win this war.
A consistent supporter of Ukraine’s fight for freedom tyranny and Russian aggression. Portman has visited Ukraine 10 times since the Euromaidan, or “Revolution of Dignity,” in 2014. Portman has met multiple times with President Zelenskyy, U.S.’s Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, and Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova, as well as many previous U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
A transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here.
“I rise tonight as we’re hearing media reports that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine will be coming to Washington tomorrow to address a joint session of the United States Congress. I hope that is an accurate report. I think it’s important that he come. This would be, by the way, the first time he has left Ukraine in 300 days, not since the start of the invasion, which is now 300 days from today. Against all odds, Ukraine has held out against the Russian assault. Many thought they’d be able to hold out a week or so. Instead, it’s been 300 days. They pushed Russia back in so many places.
“I’m glad he’s coming because I know what he will do is talk about his deep appreciation for what the American people have provided. Every time I’ve been with him, and I traveled to Ukraine about ten times since 2014, he talks about that, but particularly over the last few months I’ve been to Ukraine twice, and he focused on the fact that they couldn’t do it without us, and the deep appreciation that he feels. Second, I know he will give us a firsthand report of what’s going on.
“Just this morning he was in Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. This is what it looks like in Bakhmut today. So he’s going from a ravaged battle zone, looks a little like a World War I battle zone when you see all the damage that has been occurring in this area. He’ll be able to tell us specifically what is happening on the battlefield and talk about the continued Russian atrocities being committed in the country of Ukraine.
“I’m here for the 29th consecutive week on the floor of the Senate to talk about this attack on Ukraine, a brutal, illegal, and totally unprovoked war on a democratic ally of ours who just wants to live in peace with its neighbors, including Russia. In each of these previous 28 speeches I’ve talked about the progress that’s been made, and some of the issues that the Ukrainian people still need to address, particularly with regard to more technology and more weapon systems from the West and from the United States. Today, I thought it might be useful to step back and take a look how we got here and how far Ukraine has come over these 300 days.
“Let’s consider what the Ukrainian military has accomplished since that initial invasion of sovereign Ukrainian territory, now over eight years ago. This first picture shows Ukrainian soldiers taking up positions in Kramatorsk back in 2014. This was, again, right after the so-called Revolution of Dignity, when Ukraine decided to turn to the West, United States, Europe, democracy, free markets, and the Russian-backed corrupt government was thrown out. Russia responded by attacking Ukraine, taking Crimea and parts of the Donbas.
“These are the Ukrainian soldiers at that time. You can look at this very basic kit – old, rusted weapons, boots that don’t look very sturdy, helmets that look from the Soviet era, and they probably are. Small anti-armor weapons that really didn’t have the ability to stop the Russian armor. They couldn’t puncture the armor in the Russian tanks and other armored vehicles. These were the soldiers who were tasked with stopping Russia’s initial invasion in 2014.
“Again they look more like soldiers from the 1980s. In those days, the Ukrainian military was underfunded, faced a lot of allegations of fraud, had a lot of corruption, was shockingly small, and that was on purpose, because the Russian-backed government didn’t want an effective military.
“In 2014, with the help of an assortment of militias they were able to slow Russia’s advance just because the Ukrainians were taking the high moral ground, but they were unable to push the Russian forces out of the country or keep them from taking Crimea and large parts of the Donbas, which remained in Russian hands. Let’s fast forward now to 2022, today, and see what our help has resulted in. This is a photograph of what soldiers looked like on the front lines today.
“This is in a trench in Bakhmut. You can see modern firearms, body armor, additional gear and equipment on their uniforms for extended operations on the field and weapons that can actually make a difference. For instance, the American-made anti-javelins missiles that were provided to them that were so effective against the Russian tanks and other armored vehicles. There’s an additional thing you can’t see in this photograph, or any photograph, but it’s really important, and that’s training.
“These soldiers in 2022 are far better trained than predecessors and are schooled in western tactics. They’re competent, disciplined, and able to operate independently in uncertain circumstances. This stands in sharp contrast to how Russia’s military has conducted itself in this conflict, overly centralized command and control, poor discipline and unwillingness or inability to learn from mistakes.
“This is the modern military that has shattered the sword of Russia’s war machine, all made possible through the combined efforts of the United States, American taxpayers, but also our allies across the world. Particularly the U.K. did a lot of training, our European allies in the E.U. did a lot of training, particularly the eastern European countries in the region, also Canada. We stepped up and helped to train the next generation of Ukrainian military, and through that we’ve helped professionalize, arm, and train Ukraine’s military since 2014, to prepare for the exact contingency that now occurred earlier this year, which is a full-scale invasion by Russia.
“Our efforts are paying off as Russia’s invasion has floundered and its military has been truly denigrated. If you need more proof about how success Ukraine has been over the years, let’s look at this map. When the invasion came in February of this year, all of this area in blue was occupied by Russia. Ukraine has now taken back about 55 percent of its own territory, liberated these areas, and they continue to make progress, as you know, here in Kherson and in the Kharkiv region and throughout eastern and southeastern and northeastern Ukraine. Russia thought it had an easy battle on their hands.
“They thought within a matter of days or weeks this entire map would be red and all of Ukraine would be theirs. Instead, since February, Ukraine has liberated over 74,000 square kilometers of sovereign territory and thousands and thousands, millions in fact, of Ukrainian citizens who embraced these troops as liberators. Ukraine’s fighters have strong morale, but they’ll be the first to tell you none of this would have been possible without help from this body, from the U.S. House, from the United States taxpayers, to give them the tools they needed to protect their freedom. We have sent Ukraine now billions of dollars’ worth of military, economic, and humanitarian aid since that attack in February.
“Humanitarian aid that has saved lives, economic aid that keeps the government and economy afloat, and military that has enable Ukraine’s brave defense of their homeland. Javelin missile launchers have helped stopped the mechanized advance towards Kyiv back in February and again in March of this year. Since this summer, the most important weapons has been these high mobility artillery rocket systems, known as HIMARS. We have provided about 20 of these units, not a single one has been taken out by the Russian military.
“It’s extraordinary. They shoot and they scoot, and they’re very effective. These same weapons have been provided to the Ukrainians by Germany and by the U.K., so we’re not alone. Nor should we be. Our allies should be there for Ukraine. As I’ve said on this floor many times, these 20 launchers have been game changers in the battlefield.
“I see my colleague, Senator Klobuchar is on the floor today. When we were in Ukraine a few months ago we were talking to the U.S. Embassy personnel, a small, dedicated group who are there, about what was happening. They said the day before that they had ordered food in Kyiv. When the food arrived in bags, hamburgers, by the way, on the outside of the bag was written thank you for the HIMARS. Thank you for the HIMARS. We were told that newborns in Ukraine are often taking the name Himar now.
“That’s the degree to which they know and appreciate what we’ve provided for them to be able to save their homeland, their families, and their freedom. It’s the long range and high precision of these weapons that has enabled Ukraine to be so successful, particularly going after Russian logistics, command and control, cutting off the troops as they did in Kherson, forcing the Russians to leave that city, the first major city that Russia occupied. It’s also critical that we send more air defense equipment, particularly counter-drone weapons to Ukraine right now.
“We’ve got to continue to provide the Ukrainians with these air defense systems, including cost effective electronic warfare systems that will enable them to control the skies over the long term, without exhausting their stockpiles of anti-air missiles. We know what’s happening. As Ukraine is making progress on the battlefield, Russia, out of desperation, is turning to civilian attacks, targeted civilian attacks. That’s what’s happening every day and night in Ukraine.
“I was pleased to see recent reports the administration may soon be sending Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine to defend against Russia’s critical bombardment on these civilian targets, particularly on critical energy infrastructure. In my view, this is long overdue. Patriots are defensive. Of course we should have sent those as soon as we could and train up the Ukrainians on them, and we could have avoided so much death and destruction, but it’s good that the administration is now considering doing it. I would hope we would hear something positive on that soon.
“Russia’s foreign ministry predictably warned last Thursday that if the United States delivers these air defense system to Ukraine, it would be ‘another provocative move by the United States.’ They said it would result in a swift response from Moscow. Ladies and gentlemen, this is clear propaganda. Patriot missiles are defense by their nature. They’re not the same kind of missiles you would fire into another country offensively. They are smaller missiles, meant to kill missiles in the air and drones in the air and airplanes in the air. Any reasonable person can clearly see that the provocateur here is not the United States or any other country.
“It is Russia, of course. Ukraine has every right to defend its citizens, and I believe America is well within its rights to help them do that. This is more evidence that Russia’s claims of America’s provocations are baseless. They always have been. Javelins, Stingers, HIMARS, now Patriots – every time they have said that this is provocative. They’ll continue to claim that anything we give Ukraine to disrupt this genocidal invasion is provocative.
“So, why do we keep letting these illogical claims stifle our aid to Ukraine? Let’s not let it happen here with the Patriots. For the past 10 months, I’ve seen news story after news story about the U.S. refusing to provide this or that weapon for fear of provoking Russia. They’ve been asking for weapons from the very start that we have yet to provide –fourth-generation aircrafts, F-16s that are in other countries that are willing to provide them, but they need our licenses, we need to approve it for those planes to go.
“They want to make this a conflict where they have a chance, tank to tank to be able to have Abrams tanks. Long-range missiles like the ATACM missiles that Ukraine has asked for since the beginning of this conflict, would have enabled larger Ukrainian advances than the ones you see on this map. They would be doing even better. The same fear of provoking Russia is exactly what drove the Obama administration back in the day to refuse to provide any lethal assistance at all to Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. That certainly did not stop the Russians from holding on to Crimea and parts of the Donbas.
“It just embolden them because they knew that the United States was not going to respond and, therefore, our allies without help. Likewise refusing to give Ukraine the weapons it needs now will not stop Russia’s onslaught. No one can believe that. Russia will only leave Ukrainian territory if it is pushed out by force of arms. It will not suddenly decide to leave if we just give in to their unreasonable demands and agree with them that because it’s provocative we can’t provide it.
“We’ve got to continue to provide more aid to Ukraine and do it as soon as possible. We can’t allow a stalemate to set in, or worse allow Russia to regain the initiative during this critical time. Every day this war drags on, there are more impacts on our economy, on the global economy, and every day this war drags on, there are more war crimes being committed by Russia. Throughout my several trips to the region since the invasion began 10 months ago, I have spoken with women and children destruction that few of us would ever imagine. Our military aid can propel the forces of Ukraine to victory but the mental and emotional toll of this war will be felt for decades to come.
“As Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure continue to knock out power around the country, last Wednesday and Thursday seven civilians were killed and a further 19 were wounded according to a report from President Zelenskyy’s office. Yesterday, only 20 percent of Kyiv, this modern city in Ukraine, only 20 percent of it had lights. And the war crimes do not end there. In the recently liberated city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials discovered a room that Russian soldiers used specifically for the detention and torture of children. According to the Ukrainian parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights.
“We saw the rock bottom in Kherson. The children were given little water and almost no food. According to locals, the children were also subjected to psychological abuse. One 14-year-old boy was arrested and tortured just for taking a picture of broken Russian equipment. Who can hear these words and truly think that Ukrainians or the West are the true provocateurs here. That’s just the war crimes we know about and we know about a lot of them now.
“We don’t know what horrors are still being conducted here behind the lines in occupied areas of Ukraine. Unfortunately, Russia is making it abundantly clear it will do nothing to hold its soldiers accountable for these crimes in Ukraine. A new bill making its way in the Russian legislature would effectively legalize any and all war crimes committed by Russian soldiers if the crimes are ‘aimed to protect the interests’ of the Russian Federation.
“As many of us have said for months the pain and suffering inflicted on the innocent people of Ukraine is the point and now Russian soldiers will have official legal cover to commit those atrocities. This is a terror campaign. Knocking out power, putting people in the dark, in the cold during the Ukrainian winter.
“We can’t allow this suffering to continue. I’ll be leaving the Senate soon and ending my time in this great chamber. It’s my last speech on the Senate floor about Ukraine. Before I go a couple of thoughts about the future. Ukraine can win this war. They’ve shown that. The ending has been clear to many of us for a long time if we provide assistance. Compare Ukraine’s military competence, bravery, discipline and creativity on the one hand.
“On the other hand Russia’s incompetent and lack of ability to control or even supply its troops. There’s a New York Times story seen in the Sunday Times about Russia’s inability to provide troops with their basic needs. Russia has fumbled every opportunity it has had in this war from failed attack on Kyiv in the beginning to the port offenses in Kharkiv Oblast and in the west bank of the Dnipro River.
“Even their supposed victories in the Donetsk area have come after long, grinding advances that come at the cost of thousands of casualties. At best, these are pyrrhic victories that reflect a serious inability to learn or think creatively on the part of Russian forces. Ukraine on the other hand has had the moral high ground and the morale and the spirit in this war since the first Russian soldiers crossed the border with Belarus in the north in the lines of contact here in the east.
“Ukrainian soldiers have either outright defeated Russian’s offensive as they did in the north or the spring or slowed them to a crawl as they’ve done in the east. Right now Russian forces near the city of Bakhmut are advancing no more than 100 to 200 meters a day at a cost we’re told of at least 50 Russian soldiers a day. And on the attack Ukrainians have been brave, bold, and relentless.
“Their liberation of Kharkiv Oblast in September was a matter of carefully testing Russia’s defenses there, and once a weakness was spotted, Ukrainian soldiers surged through the hole in the line – one week later, all of the province was liberated. It was a beautifully executed operation which will likely be studied in military academies for a long time to come and was American and European and Canadian training that allowed that to happen.
“In the south near Kherson, it was a different kind of offensive. There Ukrainian forces provided with these HIMARS from the United States, we talked about earlier, gradually whittled away at forces until the situation became untenable, they couldn’t be resupplied so they left. Again the one major city they had occupied. One of the counteroffensive in Kharkiv required quick thinking and ability to rapidly exploit success.
“The other required meticulous planning and patience, two very different operations yet Ukrainian soldiers held them both off. That is why Ukraine can win this war. Its defenders are bold, creative, smart, and endlessly brave. They’ve proven it to us. Every Russian missile fired at the Ukrainian infrastructure to destroy the Ukrainian people’s will is a wasted missile. Why do I say that? Because the intention is to make the Ukrainian people want to back off, to lose their resolve and this morale and the spirit I talked about.
“It had just the opposite effect every time it happens which it makes the Ukrainian people even more resolved and even more intent to win this war. The Ukrainian people are unbreakable, as we’ve seen. And once Ukraine wins this war, I believe it will join the European Union and eventually it will join NATO. The EU granted candidate status in June which sent them down a path toward eventual membership. Since then, according to the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Ukraine has already passed seven pieces of legislation to adopt reforms that are necessary to join European Union.
“According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Ukraine expects to become a full-fledged member of the EU within five years. That’s the future.
“Regarding NATO, by the way, I’ve long supported Ukraine’s intention to join the alliance, the most successful military alliance if the history. None of this would be happening were they in NATO already. It’s in line with NATO’s open door policy. The alliance has always welcomed the applications of any and all eligible countries, and once Ukraine pushes Russia out of all of its sovereign territory, I believe that it can take this step.
“They certainly would provide incredible military power to NATO. Russia launched its initial invasion of Ukrainian territory in 2014 and this larger one in 2022 precisely to keep Ukraine out of NATO. But all sovereign countries, including Ukraine, have the right to decide their own path, their own destiny, their own alliances, their own foreign policy. We cannot legitimatize the Kremlin’s ridiculous demands by giving up now.
“Plus, it’s hard to think of a more qualified country to join than Ukraine. Russia has been a greatest threat to the alliance for at least a decade. What better country to induct than one that has extensive experience defeating that threat on the battlefield? So it’s in our interest but not just our strategic interest to aid Ukraine. It’s also in our moral interest. If we falter in support of Ukraine, we condemn millions of innocent Ukrainians to a future of repression, a future of summary executions like we saw in Bucha and Izyum.
“I’ve been there and seen the damage they did. I’ve seen the place where they had a mass grave burying Ukrainian citizens. A future of torture chambers built for adults and children alike. A future in which the very idea of being proudly Ukrainian is outlawed and punishable by torture or death. If we falter we allow President Putin to threaten the rest of Europe and potentially start a war with NATO that would draw in the United States. We cannot do that.
“This aggression must stop here. Ukraine and its western allies are fighting to preserve freedom in Europe and globally. How this war ends will have far-reaching consequences both on the rest of the continent and around the word. If we can stop Russian aggression here. Then we can deter other adversaries. They’re watching. China is watching. Iran is watching. They’re watching and thinking about whether they should start similarly horrific wars of conquest. We must send a message to the rest of the world that America will not back down when rogue nations threaten free countries.
“This has always been America’s role. Today was at the National Mall seeing the prayer that Franklin Roosevelt said on D-Day. And this plaque has just been placed on the National Mall based on legislation we passed here in this body. And in that prayer Franklin Roosevelt says that American troops were not going to Europe for conquest. It was not for the love of conquest. It was not for the lust of conquest. Rather it was to combat the Germans and to stop conquest.
“That American troops were there to liberate. That’s what we do. In this case it’s not our troops. They aren’t asking for our troops but they are asking for the tools to be able to successful in liberating the people of Ukraine. So I urge my colleagues to support the funding bill that was released yesterday that includes $47 billion in assistance for Ukraine. We talked about this before. But it will support the military, the civilians and the government in Ukraine as that country continues to fight off the invasion.
“I know these are significant investments and we must be good stewards of taxpayer money. I’m very supportive of the accountability measures that are in that legislation that are very important. The end use monitoring for our military equipment, the fact that an American accounting firm, Deloitte, is there to make sure the money is properly spent. That the World Bank gives us regularly reports and audits the funding.
“This is significant. And Ukraine, by the way, is for this transparency and we should be, too. But as we’re good stewards of American taxpayer money, let’s also remember that Ukraine is fighting for all of us. Ukraine is fighting for all of us. And fighting for freedom. And freedom is a worthy investment. I yield back my time.”
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