Following Visit to Poland & Ukrainian Border, Blumenthal Urges More Action & Support for Ukraine

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) delivered remarks on the Senate Floor yesterday following a bipartisan Congressional visit to Poland and the Ukrainian border over the weekend. Blumenthal recounted his visit and urged more action to support Ukraine, including passage of two bipartisan measures he is introducing with colleagues to send a strong message to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“If the Ukrainian people have a fair fight on the ground, they will win. They will drive Russia out of their precious land. But right now there is no fair fight. Right now in the skies Putin dominates,” said Blumenthal, urging more action to help Ukrainian fighters. “We must make sure that Ukraine stays in that fight, and we can do it if we raise our commitment. I appreciate what the administration has done in its skillful use of public intelligence, its uniting of our allies, its adroit rallying of America, but now is the time to do more, and it must be done urgently. The time is now.”

While at the Poland-Ukraine border this weekend, Blumenthal spoke with Ukrainian refugees fleeing following the bombing in Yavoriv 12 miles from the Polish border and underscored the human toll of Putin’s war: “The longer we allow Putin to command the skies in the way that he does now, the longer innocent people will be slaughtered in their homes, in hospitals, in maternity wards, and the longer the world is put at risk of another attack on a nuclear facility that could spread contamination throughout the world and even throughout Europe. The trauma and terror on the faces of those women and children, the tears that we saw will stay with me forever.” 

Recalling his father’s fleeing to the United States to escape the Holocaust in 1935, Blumenthal emphasized Americans’ generosity of welcoming and supporting immigrants and refugees, stating: “America has always been a nation of immigrants and refugees, and we have always spread our generosity to them. And now, likewise, in Connecticut we see the Ukrainian American community providing clothing and blankets, donations, along with the Polish American community. Indeed, throughout the state of Connecticut and throughout the country America's hearts are going out to these refugees in this humanitarian crisis. That is what we do in America.” Blumenthal also praised countries neighboring Ukraine, including Poland, for welcoming millions of fleeing Ukrainians with open arms.

Blumenthal stressed the need for further action to send a strong message to Russia, including a measure he is introducing with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), urging the President to work with our allies to halt Russia’s ability to sell its oil and gas on western markets and stop the connection of all Russian banks to the SWIFT financial system, and another measure he is introducing with U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), providing the president with authority to seize and sell superyachts, mansions, and other luxury possessions of those connected to Putin.

“I have no illusions that Putin can be forced right away to the negotiating table, but these measures will eventually force him to respond,” Blumenthal said. “This time is a turning point, and we must enable Ukraine to chart its own course to remain as a free and sovereign nation and to have a fair fight.”

The video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available here and the full transcript is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Thank you, Madam President. I want to thank my really distinguished and able colleagues and friends from Ohio, Senator Portman, and Senator Wicker, and also Senator Klobuchar, who accompanied us on this trip and enabled us to be so much more effective because of her very perceptive and insightful wisdom on these topics and her experience with the issues that we confronted, and a special thanks to Senator Portman for so ably organizing us and also to enable us to meet with senior members of the Polish government, our own ambassador, Mark Brzezinski who is doing such a great job there, along with his team at the embassy, the brave men and women of the 82nd Airborne Division, and heart-breakingly the women and children who are fleeing Ukraine with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs. 

I want to thank as well Senator Schumer for bringing to the floor this resolution, and Senator Graham for his leadership. This resolution is a very powerful and compelling message to the world that the United States will stand strongly with the people of Ukraine against this brutal, insidious invasion by Vladimir Putin and Russia. And tomorrow, we will hear from President Zelenskyy, whose passionate and powerful plea for action will, no doubt, illicit more words of support. 

But we need more than words now. We need more than declarations of support. We need action, action that will make a difference on the battlefield. And let me just say very bluntly and simply, the Ukrainian resistance has proved to be more courageous, resilient, tough, and effective than Vladimir Putin ever imagined. It has become the wonder and admiration of the world. It is not only their trained army. It is the men and women who took to the streets and the fields using weapons that we have supplied, the Stinger and Javelin missiles, to hit Russia's most advanced weapons system, their aircraft, as well as their tanks, and take them out. 

If the Ukrainian people have a fair fight on the ground, they will win. They will drive Russia out of their precious land. But right now there is no fair fight. Right now in the skies Putin dominates. He has the aircraft, the missiles to do insidious damage and to wound, damage, and destroy the Ukrainian ground forces. And he is using that air superiority with consummate recklessness. 

While we were in Poland, just hours before we visited the border crossing at Korczowa, 30 of his missiles rained down on a training center in Yavoriv 12 miles away from that border crossing. The Polish authorities there told us the ground shook with the tremor of those bombs hitting a training center just 12 miles from the Polish border. Vladimir Putin was literally playing with fire. One of those missiles going astray into Poland could have triggered dramatic escalation, nuclear confrontation, and destruction of unknown magnitude. Vladimir Putin is recklessly taking this fight westward in Ukraine to the very border, the very doorstep of a NATO ally that we have an obligation to defend. 

And part of our trip was to visit with the 82nd Airborne. So impressive, these young men and women, in their intelligence as well as their dedication and bravery. They are holding the line. More and more of them are there. And they are also enabling support for Ukraine in the kinds of arms—Stingers and Javelins—that are needed. 

But we must do more than what we are doing now, and in that respected I join my colleagues. We have a common message. I personally appreciate what the administration has done in its providing support, those Javelin and Stinger missiles, the ammunition, the night goggles, drones, spare parts, and more. 

But we must do more to counter that air superiority, the dominance in Putin's missiles and jet fighters. I personally believe that we should provide more aircraft, jet fighters that President Zelenskyy has desperately requested. But I also think there are tools that we can provide, anti-air batteries, to bring down the planes and the missiles, defense mechanisms that Vladimir Putin cannot call escalatory under any possible definition. 

And likewise, means of defense that the people of Ukraine desperately need and deserve to successfully defend. There is no way any of these weapons systems are offensive. They are defensive, whether it's planes, Stinger and Javelin missiles, drones, all of it is to defend their country and do it effectively and have a fair fight on the ground against Putin's air dominance. 

We saw heartrendingly women and children coming from that bombing in Yavoriv at the border crossing. Literally, we visiting with them, spoke with them, saw and heard the grief and misery, the tragedy and trauma they are enduring. Almost all are women and children because the men stayed to fight. And they brought with them bags of clothing, their pets, stuffed animals, all they could carry, but no more, facing a future of total uncertainty, not knowing when, if at all, they would return, and when, if at all, they would see their husbands, brothers, sons who were left to fight. 

We must make sure that Ukraine stays in that fight, and we can do it if we raise our commitment. I appreciate what the administration has done in its skillful use of public intelligence, its uniting of our allies, its adroit rallying of America, but now is the time to do more, and it must be done urgently. The time is now. 

Days, weeks -- not on our side. Time works against us. The longer we allow Putin to command the skies in the way that he does now, the longer innocent people will be slaughtered in their homes, in hospitals, in maternity wards, and the longer the world is put at risk of another attack on a nuclear facility that could spread contamination throughout the world and even throughout Europe. The trauma and terror on the faces of those women and children, the tears that we saw will stay with me forever. 

I was reminded of my own family, my dad, who came to this country in 1935 to escape the Holocaust. He too came with not much more than the shirt on his back. He spoke virtually no English. He knew no one. He brought his entire family, his immediate family, but he lost much of his other family. America has always been a nation of immigrants and refugees, and we have always spread our generosity to them. And now, likewise, in Connecticut we see the Ukrainian American community providing clothing and blankets, donations, along with the Polish American community. Indeed, throughout the state of Connecticut and throughout the country America's hearts are going out to these refugees in this humanitarian crisis. That is what we do in America. 

That is what we saw, in fact, Americans and others doing at the World Central Kitchen in the reception area that we visited. My colleagues and I served chicken, vegetables, rice, and potatoes for a couple or more hours to these refugees, and we had, I think, a tremendously uplifting experience. 

I mention it because, as Senator Portman has said so eloquently, even in the midst of this evil, we saw good in that team of the World Central Kitchen, in the 82nd Airborne, our men and women in uniform, in the embassy staff that were willing to risk their lives in Kyiv and stay in Lviv. And finally move from Lviv to Warsaw. Our foreign service, our men and women in uniform. And of course the people of Poland who have welcomed these refugees literally, welcomed them into their homes, two million of them. 10% or more of the population of Warsaw alone an effort of unprecedented magnitude in recent history. 

And as we returned home so grateful for the good in those people, it was brought on me again to realize that this invasion was a war of choice, that evil in Moscow is one man. I still believe the Russian people if they knew what was going on in Ukraine would throw him out. That is not to say that he should be assassinated or that he should be attacked. I believe that if there were a democratic process with full and fair information in Russia, there is no way that Vladimir Putin would survive a democracy. 

And so I think we must continue to tighten the economic sanctions to bring that pain home to the Russians, to make them feel the hurt they've inflicted on others and to know that they have a responsibility to end this conflict. They must do more as we must do more. And our action must tighten and broaden economic sanctions to stop Vladimir Putin from continuing to reap the revenue of sales of oil and gas. 

I commend the administration for stopping importation of Russian oil and gas to this country, but other western countries continue to do it and other countries around the world. And therefore I am partnering in a measure with Senator Blackburn of Tennessee urging the president to work with our allies to halt Russia's ability to sell its oil and gas on western markets, to stop the connection of all Russian banks to the SWIFT financial system which is the means for him to reap that revenue. If he is cut off from it, his ability to sell that oil and gas and reap the revenue and finance his war machine is broken. 

And a second measure introduced today with Senators Whitehouse, Graham, and my colleague from Mississippi Senator Wicker provides the president with authority to seize and sell all of the super yacht, the jets, mansions, and luxury possessions of Putin's criminal kleptocracy as well as his cronies, his family and others. These ill-begotten gains will be used to support freedom fighters and provide humanitarian assistance to those refugees we saw escaping. 

I have no illusions that Putin can be forced right away to the negotiating table, but these measures will eventually force him to respond. We must give the people of Ukraine a fair fight. We must act immediately to provide them with support they need to stop Putin's war in the air. Much as Winston Churchill rallied Britain in the Battle of Britain to survive and resolve at the beginning of World War II, in the Battle of Britain to resist Hitler’s onslaught from the air, so, too, the people of Ukraine are fighting their battle. 

And we must respond with action. Our security is at peril. Our defense is at risk. The economic implications are perilous. And the world order is threatened. This time is a turning point, and we must enable Ukraine to chart its own course to remain as a free and sovereign nation and to have a fair fight. I yield the floor and I yield back to my colleague from Mississippi.

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