IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 192 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States 
condemns the Russian Government’s gross violations of international 
law amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, stands in 
solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and supports the efforts of inter-
national organizations to help people displaced by war and conflict. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 1, 2023 
Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself and Mr. CICILLINE) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the United States condemns the Russian Government’s 
gross violations of international law amounting to war 
crimes and crimes against humanity, stands in solidarity 
with the people of Ukraine, and supports the efforts 
of international organizations to help people displaced 
by war and conflict. 
Whereas the Government of Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, 
has engaged in an unprovoked military invasion of 
Ukraine and gross violations of international law amount-
ing to war crimes and crimes against humanity; 
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•HRES 192 IH 
Whereas the law of armed conflict, also known as inter-
national humanitarian law, is a set of international rules 
regulating the conduct of armed conflict; 
Whereas the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols 
are the core of international humanitarian law, and many 
rules contained in these treaties are considered customary 
international law, binding on all states, whether or not 
they have ratified the treaties; 
Whereas Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine constitutes an 
international armed conflict governed by international 
humanitarian law as well as customary international hu-
manitarian law; 
Whereas Article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva 
Conventions, prohibits the targeting of civilians, as well 
as ‘‘acts or threats of violence, the primary purpose of 
which is to spread terror among the civilian population’’; 
Whereas Article 76 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva 
Conventions, states that women ‘‘shall be protected in 
particular against rape, forced prostitution, and any 
other form of indecent assault’’; 
Whereas Article 77 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva 
Conventions expresses that ‘‘children shall be the object 
of special respect and shall be protected against any form 
of indecent assault’’; 
Whereas, on June 19, 2008, the United Nations Security 
Council adopted Resolution 1820, noting that ‘‘rape and 
other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, 
a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with re-
spect to genocide’’, and calling for ‘‘prosecuting persons 
responsible for such acts’’; 
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•HRES 192 IH 
Whereas Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International 
Criminal Court defines ‘‘crimes against humanity’’ as 
acts such as murder, extermination, rape, persecution, 
and all other inhumane acts of a similar character inten-
tionally causing great suffering, which are committed as 
part of a widespread or systematic attack directed 
against any civilian population, with knowledge of the at-
tack; 
Whereas Article 53 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva 
Conventions, prohibits committing any ‘‘acts of hostility 
directed against the historic monuments, works of art or 
places of worship which constitute the cultural or spir-
itual heritage of peoples’’; 
Whereas Article 15 of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva 
Conventions, establishes that installations containing 
dangerous forces, including nuclear electrical generating 
stations, ‘‘shall not be made the object of attack, even 
where these objects are military objectives, if such attack 
may cause the release of dangerous forces and con-
sequent severe losses among the civilian population’’; 
Whereas, on February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation 
launched an unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine’s 
sovereign territory; 
Whereas, on February 25, 2022, the Russian Federation 
threatened Sweden and Finland with military and polit-
ical repercussions if they joined the North Atlantic Trea-
ty Organization, a military alliance committed to the col-
lective defense of members against attacks; 
Whereas, on February 28, 2022, the United Nations World 
Food Programme launched an emergency operation to 
provide food assistance for people fleeing Ukraine to 
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•HRES 192 IH 
neighboring countries, an operation which is ongoing to 
this day and which has assisted between 2,000,000 and 
3,000,000 Ukrainians per month during each month of 
the war; 
Whereas, in late February 2022, the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization began its ongoing effort to help coordinate 
Ukraine’s requests for assistance and to support Allies in 
the delivery of humanitarian aid; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, a Russian airstrike hit Kyiv’s 
main television tower, damaging broadcasting infrastruc-
ture, killing at least 5 people, and injuring others; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, a Russian airstrike targeted 
Freedom Square in Kharkiv, as cars were stopped at a 
traffic light on their morning commute; 
Whereas Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy charac-
terized Russia’s airstrike on Freedom Square on March 
1, 2022, as a ‘‘war crime’’; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, at the United Nations Human 
Rights Council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken con-
demned Russia for killing civilians, striking ‘‘schools, hos-
pitals and residential buildings’’ in Ukraine; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, Andriy Yermak, head of the Of-
fice of the President of Ukraine, announced that a Rus-
sian missile hit the location of the Babyn Yar Holocaust 
Memorial complex in Kyiv, a place where thousands of 
Jewish people were killed between 1941 and 1943; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, a Russian missile hit Freedom 
Square in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine, causing severe 
damage to an opera house, concert hall, and government 
offices; 
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•HRES 192 IH 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, President Zelenskyy expressed 
to the European Parliament, ‘‘we are fighting for our 
rights, for our freedoms, for life, for our life, and now we 
are fighting for survival’’; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, a global spokesperson for the 
United 
Nations 
High 
Commissioner 
for 
Refugees 
(UNHCR), Shabia Mantoo, announced that the UNHCR 
would begin coordinating a refugee response plan with 
other United Nations agencies and nongovernmental or-
ganization partners, in support of national authorities 
helping people fleeing Ukraine, a response plan which in-
cludes almost 250 partner organizations and which has 
assisted millions of Ukrainians over course of the past 
year; 
Whereas, on March 1, 2022, the United Nations and humani-
tarian partners launched coordinated emergency appeals 
to urgently deliver humanitarian support to people in 
Ukraine and refugees in neighboring countries; 
Whereas United States ambassador to the United Nations 
Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed to the United Na-
tions on March 2, 2022, that videos showed Russian 
forces moving lethal weaponry into Ukraine, including 
cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned 
under the Geneva Conventions; 
Whereas, on March 2, 2022, Ukraine’s foreign ministry re-
ported that a Russian missile strike destroyed the 
Pavlusenko maternity hospital; 
Whereas, on March 2, 2022, the United Nations General As-
sembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia 
for its military invasion of Ukraine and demanded that 
the Russian Federation immediately, completely, and un-
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•HRES 192 IH 
conditionally withdraw all its military forces from the ter-
ritory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized 
borders, a vote which was repeated by the UNGA on 
February 23, 2023, and which once again overwhelmingly 
condemned the Russian Federation; 
Whereas, on March 3, 2022, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy 
accused Russian forces of ‘‘nuclear terror’’ because ‘‘Rus-
sian tanks are shooting at the nuclear blocks’’ in the 
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest nu-
clear power station; 
Whereas, on March 3, 2022, the United States embassy in 
Ukraine called the Russian attack on the Ukrainian nu-
clear plant in Zaporizhzhia a ‘‘war crime’’; 
Whereas, on March 4, 2022, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign 
Affairs accused Russian soldiers of raping women in 
Ukrainian cities; 
Whereas, on March 5, 2022, the World Health Organization 
confirmed several Russian attacks on health care centers 
in Ukraine, causing multiple deaths and injuries; 
Whereas, on March 6, 2022, in response to Russian attacks 
on Ukrainian health care facilities, the Director-General 
of the World Health Organization expressed that ‘‘at-
tacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical 
neutrality and are violations of international humani-
tarian law’’; 
Whereas, on March 6, 2022, the UNHCR stated that Rus-
sia’s war in Ukraine had created the fastest growing ref-
ugee crisis in Europe since World War II; 
Whereas, on April 3, 2022, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister 
Iryna Vereshchuk announced that Russian troops occu-
pying the Ukrainian village of Motyzhyn had kidnaped, 
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•HRES 192 IH 
tortured, and killed the village’s mayor, Olga Sukhenko, 
Sukhenko’s husband, and Sukhenko’s son before dis-
posing of their bodies in a shallow grave; 
Whereas, on April 4, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy characterized Russian troops’ actions in 
Bucha, Ukraine, as ‘‘genocide’’ and ‘‘war crimes’’ when 
the bodies of over 400 executed civilians were discovered 
in the city, with many of these bodies displaying visible 
signs of torture; 
Whereas, on April 8, 2022, a Russian cluster munition strike 
on the train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, killed 58 ci-
vilians, many of whom were gathered at the train station 
to board evacuation trains and flee the ongoing fighting; 
Whereas, on May 12, 2022, the United Nations Human 
Rights Council adopted a resolution expressing ‘‘deep 
concern at the grave human rights and humanitarian sit-
uation in the city of Mariupol, the near total destruction 
of its residential and civilian infrastructure caused by 
Russian bombing and shelling, reports of tens of thou-
sands of civilian casualties and of mass graves near the 
city, and the limited progress in securing safe and 
unhindered evacuations to safe areas under the control of 
the government of Ukraine’’; 
Whereas, on October 18, 2022, the Independent International 
Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report 
stating that ‘‘the Commission has found that war crimes 
and violations of human rights and international humani-
tarian law have been committed in Ukraine since 24 Feb-
ruary 2022. Russian armed forces are responsible for the 
vast majority of the violations identified’’; 
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•HRES 192 IH 
Whereas, on October 18, 2022, the Independent International 
Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’s report revealed that 
‘‘the Commission documented patterns of summary exe-
cutions, unlawful confinement, torture, ill-treatment, and 
rape and other sexual violence committed in areas occu-
pied by Russian armed forces across the four [Ukrainian] 
provinces on which [the Commission’s inquiry] focused. 
People have been detained, some have been unlawfully de-
ported to the Russian Federation, and many are still re-
ported missing. Sexual violence has affected victims of all 
ages. Victims, including children, were sometimes forced 
to witness the crimes’’; 
Whereas, as of January 31, 2023, the UNHCR asserts that, 
as a result of the war in Ukraine, more than 8,000,000 
Ukrainian refugees have been recorded across Europe 
and approximately 17,600,000 people remain in need of 
urgent humanitarian assistance inside Ukraine; and 
Whereas, on February 14, 2023, the Ukraine Conflict Ob-
servatory, which was launched by the Department of 
State, found, using data from the Yale School of Public 
Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, that the Russian 
Government is operating an expansive network of ‘‘re- 
education camps’’ where it has held thousands of Ukrain-
ian children since the start of the war, with the primary 
purpose of these camps being the ‘‘political re-education’’ 
of Ukrainian children: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) forcefully condemns the continued use of 
unlawful and indiscriminate violence against civilian 
populations by the Government of Russia, its allies, 
and any other parties to the conflict; 
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