Title: 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.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 802 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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 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 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, 
        religious 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 Rostov-on-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;
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 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
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
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) reaffirms the commitment of the United States to 
        support the democratically elected Government of Ukraine and 
        its people;
            (2) reaffirms the support of the United States for the 
        integration of Ukraine with the North Atlantic Treaty 
        Organization and the European Union;
            (3) commends the Ukrainian people's commitment to liberty 
        and critical progress made since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity 
        despite immense pressure from Russian aggression and hybrid 
        warfare tactics;
            (4) condemns Russia's continued aggression in Ukraine 
        including the illegal occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine;
            (5) calls for Russia to immediately remove all personnel 
        and equipment belonging to its security or armed forces and 
        proxies from the sovereign territory of Ukraine, and for 
        Ukraine to regain control of its border with Russia, including 
        sections now held by separatist forces;
            (6) calls for the immediate release of Ukrainian human 
        rights defenders and dissidents illegally arrested by Russian 
        forces and their proxies;
            (7) condemns any form of religious persecution and 
        violation of religious freedoms by Russia or armed groups 
        commanded by Russia in the illegally occupied Donbas and Crimea 
        regions of Ukraine;
            (8) reaffirms opposition to the Nord Stream II natural gas 
        pipeline, which is political in nature, and calls for enactment 
        of sanctions with respect to these pipelines;
            (9) expresses support for increased United States security 
        and capacity-building assistance to Ukraine, and an increase in 
        funds for such assistance;
            (10) urges the United States to continue to strengthen 
        critical efforts to enhance Ukrainian capacity to defend 
        itself, including via enhanced cyber cooperation, military 
        training and provision of military equipment, countering 
        disinformation, assistance to support psychosocial care and job 
        integration for Ukrainian veterans, supporting market access 
        for Ukrainian rural women, and other critical programs;
            (11) supports the Ukrainian government in its efforts to 
        achieve a peaceful resolution to the international armed 
        conflict in eastern Ukraine caused by Russia's ongoing military 
        aggression and illegal occupation, through the establishment of 
        a full ceasefire, withdrawal of Russian and Russia-backed 
        illegal military forces, and the fulfillment of other elements 
        of the Minsk Agreements and appointing a United States diplomat 
        to play an active role in support of the negotiations and 
        ensuring Ukraine's security;
            (12) calls for Russia to release all Ukrainians detained by 
        Russian forces or their proxies for their activities on 
        sovereign Ukrainian territory;
            (13) calls on the United States Government, United States 
        allies in Europe, the United Nations, the Organization for 
        Security and Co-operation in Europe, and international partners 
        to continue to pressure Russia to uphold its international 
        obligations; and
            (14) continues to oppose Russian threats to the energy 
        security of United States allies in Europe and encourages the 
        Government of the United States to further support the 
        diversification of energy supplies to Europe.
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