Washington, DC – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statement on the unprovoked invasion by Russian military forces on the nation of Ukraine:
“Dictator Putin has now launched a full-scale invasion of Russia’s democratic sovereign neighbor. This unprovoked, bloody assault on a peaceful nation is an attack on the international order created after World War II to promote peace among nations. It is also an attack on democracy itself, and autocrats around the world are watching.
“Putin and his cronies must pay dearly. The time for condemning is over; what matters now is action. America and our allies have to use every economic tool available to isolate this rogue regime and defend Ukrainian democracy. The blood money and stolen assets of Putin’s oligarchs, hidden away in foreign holdings, must be seized, and the oligarchs shut out of Western society. There is strong bipartisan backing for sending additional aid to Ukraine and to our NATO allies in the region. As Ukrainians take up arms to defend their homeland, we must ensure they have the support they need.”
From Thursday through Sunday, Whitehouse and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) led a delegation of more than two dozen members of Congress to the Munich Security Conference, the world’s major global forum for the discussion of security policy. Whitehouse is also a member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission).
