IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 802 

Affirming the United States vital interest in liberty in Europe and resolute 

support for Ukraine in its efforts to counter Russian aggression and 

continue its trajectory among the community of democracies. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 16, 2020 

Ms. KAPTUR (for herself, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. 

RUSH, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. COOK, Mr. 

CICILLINE, Mr. COSTA, Mr. RYAN, Mr. LAMBORN, Ms. JACKSON LEE, 

Mr. COHEN, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. WEBER of Texas, and 

Mr. LIPINSKI) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Affirming the United States vital interest in liberty in Europe and resolute support for Ukraine in its efforts to 

counter Russian aggression and continue its trajectory 

among the community of democracies. 

Whereas Ukraine joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Partnership for Peace Program in 1994, 

and has been a longstanding NATO-aspirant country; 

Whereas at the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit, member nations’ heads of state and government issued a communique stating, ‘‘NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s 

Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We 

agreed today that these countries will become members of 


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•HRES 802 IH 

NATO. Both nations have made valuable contribution to 

Alliance operations.’’; 

Whereas Ukraine and the European Union have entered into 

an Association Agreement, which pro-Russian, corrupt 

Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych refused to conclude in 2013; 

Whereas, in 2014, the Ukrainian people bravely rose up in 

the Revolution of Dignity, leading to the ouster of President Yanukovych; 

Whereas, as a result, Russian Forces illegally invaded, occupied, and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 

2014, as well as led and supported illegal military, paramilitary, and other separatist activity in the Donetsk and 

Luhansk oblasts of eastern Ukraine since April 2014; 

Whereas the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine has led to the 

deaths of more than 13,000 people and the internal displacement of more than 1,400,000; 

Whereas Russian-controlled separatists continue to violate 

ceasefire agreements, including through bringing heavy 

weaponry near civilian populations and the line of contact; 

Whereas Russian-controlled separatists have been targeting 

civilian basic needs facilities such as water filtration systems, heat and electricity facilities, powerlines, and other 

critical services; 

Whereas, on July 17, 2014, Russian-backed separatists shot 

down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragically killing 298 

innocents; 

Whereas Russia has a deeply concerning human rights record 

in Russian-occupied Crimea and territories in eastern 

Ukraine, including persecution of religious minorities 


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•HRES 802 IH 

such as the Crimean Tatars, and arbitrary arrests and 

disappearances of journalists and civil society activists; 

Whereas international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions, to which Russia is a signatory, requires 

Russia to respect and protect the religious freedom of the 

inhabitants of the territory it occupies and controls, or 

controls through organized nonstate armed groups it 

commands, and holds Russia responsible for violations of 

religious freedom in this territory; 

Whereas according to the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Reports, and other reporting, 

violations of religious freedom in the Crimea region of 

Ukraine since Russia invaded and occupied the territory 

have included abduction, detention and imprisonment, 

torture, forced psychiatric hospitalizations, fines, restrictions on missionary activities, confiscations of property, 

including churches and meeting halls, expulsions and obstructions to reentry, denying registration of religious 

groups, vandalism, fines, and banning peaceful religious 

groups, and targeted groups have included Muslim Crimean Tatars, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formerly 

the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Protestant Christians, and Jehovah’s Witnesses; 

Whereas according to the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Reports, violations of religious freedom in the part of the Donbas region of 

Ukraine controlled by armed groups commanded by Russia have included detention and imprisonment, torture, 

confiscation of property, including churches and meeting 

halls, physical assaults and threats of violence, vandalism, fines, restrictions on missionary activities, reliVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:10 Jan 16, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR802.IH HR802

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•HRES 802 IH 

gious services, ceremonies, gatherings, and literature, and 

banning of peaceful religious groups, and targeted groups 

have included the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formerly 

the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, the 

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Protestant Christians, 

and Jehovah’s Witnesses; 

Whereas Emir-Usein Kukus, a Crimean Tatar and vocal dissident of Russia’s oppression in Crimea, was arrested, 

beaten, interrogated, and illegally transported to Rostovon-Don in the Russian Federation by the Federal Security Service (FSB) where he remains in Russian detainment; 

Whereas Russia seeks to undermine democratic institutions 

in Ukraine and globally through hybrid means, including 

conventional warfare, cyberattacks, weaponizing energy, 

election intervention, disinformation campaigns, and 

paramilitary operations; 

Whereas Russia seeks to use the Nord Stream II and Turk 

Stream natural gas pipelines to bypass Ukrainian transit 

routes and weaken that nation’s energy security and 

economy; 

Whereas the Russian Federal Security Service Border Service 

illegally fired upon and captured 3 Ukrainian Navy vessels, including 24 Ukrainian crewmembers, that were exercising Ukraine’s right to navigation through the Kerch 

Strait on the way to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol in 

November 2018; 

Whereas this naval aggression is part of Russia’s strategy of 

‘‘creeping annexation’’, to slowly chip away at Ukraine’s 

sovereignty; 


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•HRES 802 IH 

Whereas the Ukrainian government states that Russia is 

holding at least 113 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russian territory and Russian-occupied Crimea in contravention of international law; 

Whereas it is estimated that more than 100 other prisoners 

are being held in the Russia-controlled regions of eastern 

Ukraine; 

Whereas Russia, together with the United States and the 

United Kingdom, affirmed its commitment ‘‘to respect 

the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine’’, as well as the ‘‘obligation to refrain 

from the threat or use of force’’ against Ukraine in the 

December 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, in exchange for Ukraine’s voluntary and peaceful willingness to relinquish its nuclear weapons; 

Whereas, since 2014, the United States Government has imposed sanctions against Russia for its illegal annexation 

of Crimea, invasion of eastern Ukraine, and other malign 

activities in Ukraine; 

Whereas Congress passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017 with overwhelming 

bipartisan support, which codified and strengthened these 

sanctions; 

Whereas Congress has provided close to $4 billion in critical 

security and development assistance to Ukraine to help 

that nation deter Russian aggression, strengthen democratic institutions, and to continue its euro-Atlantic trajectory; 

Whereas United States servicemembers in cooperation with 

NATO forces provide critical training to Ukrainian 


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ground force units at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center; 

Whereas United States cooperation with Ukraine has yielded 

valuable lessons into the evolution of Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics thereby enhancing United States readiness; 

Whereas Ukraine held Presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019, which the international community lauded 

as free and fair; 

Whereas, since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine’s 

civil society has played a critical role in advancing democratic and rule of law reforms, sometimes paying with 

their lives, as was the case of Kateryna Handziuk, who 

died on November 4, 2018, of injuries sustained during 

a July 2018 acid attack; 

Whereas, in April 2019, Ukraine launched a special 

anticorruption court to counter Ukraine’s longstanding 

problems of corruption that is to be free from political influence; 

Whereas Ukraine’s central bank rightfully nationalized 

PrivatBank due to its previous owners’ rampant corruption and theft from the Ukrainian people; 

Whereas PrivatBank must remain independent from any oligarch influence, must not be returned to its previous 

ownership, and is a test case for Ukraine’s commitment 

to anticorruption reform efforts; 

Whereas, in January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople recognized an autocephalous Orthodox 

Church of Ukraine, thereby officially granting it independence from the Russian Orthodox Church; and 


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•HRES 802 IH 

Whereas it is the longstanding policy of the United States not 

to recognize territorial changes that are the result of illegal use of force: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) reaffirms the commitment of the United 

3 States to support the democratically elected Govern4 ment of Ukraine and its people; 

5 (2) reaffirms the support of the United States 

6 for the integration of Ukraine with the North Atlan7 tic Treaty Organization and the European Union; 

8 (3) commends the Ukrainian people’s commit9 ment to liberty and critical progress made since the 

10 2014 Revolution of Dignity despite immense pres11 sure from Russian aggression and hybrid warfare 

12 tactics; 

13 (4) condemns Russia’s continued aggression in 

14 Ukraine including the illegal occupation of Crimea 

15 and eastern Ukraine; 

16 (5) calls for Russia to immediately remove all 

17 personnel and equipment belonging to its security or 

18 armed forces and proxies from the sovereign terri19 tory of Ukraine, and for Ukraine to regain control 

20 of its border with Russia, including sections now 

21 held by separatist forces; 


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1 (6) calls for the immediate release of Ukrainian 

2 human rights defenders and dissidents illegally ar3 rested by Russian forces and their proxies; 

4 (7) condemns any form of religious persecution 

5 and violation of religious freedoms by Russia or 

6 armed groups commanded by Russia in the illegally 

7 occupied Donbas and Crimea regions of Ukraine; 

8 (8) reaffirms opposition to the Nord Stream II 

9 natural gas pipeline, which is political in nature, and 

10 calls for enactment of sanctions with respect to these 

11 pipelines; 

12 (9) expresses support for increased United 

13 States security and capacity-building assistance to 

14 Ukraine, and an increase in funds for such assist15 ance; 

16 (10) urges the United States to continue to 

17 strengthen critical efforts to enhance Ukrainian ca18 pacity to defend itself, including via enhanced cyber 

19 cooperation, military training and provision of mili20 tary equipment, countering disinformation, assist21 ance to support psychosocial care and job integra22 tion for Ukrainian veterans, supporting market ac23 cess for Ukrainian rural women, and other critical 

24 programs; 


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1 (11) supports the Ukrainian government in its 

2 efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to the inter3 national armed conflict in eastern Ukraine caused by 

4 Russia’s ongoing military aggression and illegal oc5 cupation, through the establishment of a full 

6 ceasefire, withdrawal of Russian and Russia-backed 

7 illegal military forces, and the fulfillment of other 

8 elements of the Minsk Agreements and appointing a 

9 United States diplomat to play an active role in sup10 port of the negotiations and ensuring Ukraine’s se11 curity; 

12 (12) calls for Russia to release all Ukrainians 

13 detained by Russian forces or their proxies for their 

14 activities on sovereign Ukrainian territory; 

15 (13) calls on the United States Government, 

16 United States allies in Europe, the United Nations, 

17 the Organization for Security and Co-operation in 

18 Europe, and international partners to continue to 

19 pressure Russia to uphold its international obliga20 tions; and 

21 (14) continues to oppose Russian threats to the 

22 energy security of United States allies in Europe 

23 and encourages the Government of the United 


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•HRES 802 IH 

1 States to further support the diversification of en2 ergy supplies to Europe. 

Æ 


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