During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) spoke about his recent trip to Ukraine.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, I returned Sunday night from two days in Ukraine.
00:05It was my third trip since the war began, and it came at a perilous and difficult time.
00:12A week earlier, President Trump had blown up a meeting with President Zelensky,
00:19starting an argument in front of cameras that made the United States look like a weak bully.
00:27He gave away two of Ukraine's primary goals,
00:32regaining their territory and becoming a member of NATO.
00:37The result is a weakened hand in negotiations with Russia.
00:43And President Trump also cut off security and intelligence to Ukraine,
00:48leaving them blind and at risk of losing ground.
00:52So I made a decision to travel to Ukraine to show my support for the Ukrainian people
00:57and to bring back information, what I would learn on the ground,
01:03about how these policy changes were going to impact the war.
01:08What I saw showed me just why we cannot give up on the Ukrainian people
01:13and why it's important to our security to keep Putin from winning.
01:20Of course, the Ukrainians want this war to end.
01:24They want it to end more than anybody else.
01:28But any agreement has to protect Ukraine's security, and it can't be a giveaway to Putin.
01:37This war started with what Putin thought would be a three-day operation to take Kiev
01:44and then control all of Ukraine.
01:48Now, we are three years later, and that hasn't happened.
01:54The Ukrainian people, with security and intelligence assistance from us and from our allies,
02:02have been fighting for every inch of their homeland.
02:06They've endured constant missile barrages on cities and hospitals.
02:11I visited one of these hospitals myself, and this hospital had been hit with gunfire.
02:18There were holes in the exterior walls of a hospital.
02:23There was a crater on the sidewalk in front of the door of this hospital where a mortar round landed.
02:33And there, in this hospital, I spoke to wounded soldiers who were eager for nothing more
02:41than to get back into this fight.
02:46I also met with nurses who shared their stories of this invasion through tears.
02:55They told me—Mr. President, this is hard to repeat on the floor of the Senate.
03:02They told me how they witnessed Russian soldiers raping children in front of their parents
03:12and then murdering these same children in front of their parents—
03:19horrendous war crimes which can never be forgiven.
03:24I met with Ukrainian pilots, one of whom I had met with in Tucson,
03:30when he was learning to fly the F-16.
03:33I'll be honest. When I first visited their F-16 training at Davis-Mothen Air Force Base in Arizona,
03:41I wasn't sure that they could step up to flying the Viper.
03:46It's not an easy airplane to fly, and I wasn't sure that they would be effective in combat.
03:54They have more—those pilots have more than proven themselves flying challenging combat missions
04:01against the Russians, who are protected by a considerable electronic warfare defense
04:08and a surface-to-air missile defense, and, by the way, are also flying some pretty sophisticated airplanes.
04:15I spoke to one pilot. This guy shot down six cruise missiles and drones on a single mission,
04:27and he did this while carrying only four air-to-air missiles.
04:34So how did he do this? Well, two of the targets, he had a gun.
04:41Used the gun of the F-16 to shoot them down. That is really hard to do.
04:46My twin brother, who's also a Navy pilot, we were both stunned. That's impressive.
04:55They're stepping up.
04:58Ukraine's underdog status against the heavyweight Russia has bred a scrappy innovation
05:07that the United States should envy and that we can learn from.
05:13I heard it in their words when they said that they would fight—get this, Mr. President—
05:19they said they would fight with rocks and sticks if they had to, to defend their country against Putin.
05:26And I saw it in their efforts to produce cutting-edge weapons to take the fight directly at the Russian enemy.
05:36They're building one-way attack drones at an incredible rate,
05:41especially considering that they stood up this production from nothing.
05:47And that's what's possible when hitting your production target every single day is a matter of life and death.
05:59They have an innovation cycle that's measured in days,
06:04while ours is measured in years, and we should learn from that.
06:11Because supporting Ukraine, it's not just about defending freedom.
06:17And freedom is a fundamental tenet of what makes America great.
06:24It's also critical to our national security in preventing future bigger wars.
06:31Not only would victory make Putin stronger to strike further into Europe,
06:36but if the United States abandons Ukraine, what message does that send to our friends across the globe?
06:46It tells them we are untrustworthy and unreliable.
06:53Now, as significant as that is, the bigger deal is what we would see from China.
07:01The Chinese watch everything, and they want to take Taiwan.
07:06If they view our loyalty to our partners and allies as weak, they are more likely to take Taiwan by force.
07:15If that happens, this president, or any future president,
07:20will have to make one of the most consequential decisions in the history of our country.
07:28My goal is to prevent that moment.
07:33My goal in the Senate is, and will continue to be, to keep us out of wars.
07:40And I think that is true for most combat veterans like myself.
07:45So I came back this week with the message that we need to fix this mess and get back to supporting Ukraine.
07:52Now, I'm glad that already there has been positive movement.
07:57The announcement from the American and Ukrainian negotiations in Saudi Arabia yesterday,
08:04led by Secretary Rubio and the National Security Advisor Tim Walz, was a step forward.
08:12Once again, we are supporting Ukraine with military security assistance and with intelligence aid,
08:19and we're working towards a resolution to this war that guarantees Ukraine's security.
08:27And Ukraine accepted a proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire.
08:33Now, this is going to come down to whether Putin will accept these terms and commit to a real negotiation.
08:41So far, he has showed no indication that he's ready for peace.
08:47Putin started this war by breaking a ceasefire.
08:52He has mobilized his entire country and the help of other dictators like Kim Jong-un to try to win this war.
09:01And every day, every single day, Mr. President, his soldiers commit war crimes.
09:08Not only must he agree to the terms of this ceasefire, he has to be held to them by the United States and our allies.
09:18America is the strongest and richest country in the world.
09:22We didn't get here by being bullies like Vladimir Putin.
09:28We got there by leading from the front and bringing our allies along with us
09:35and standing by them like they stand by us.
09:40The safety and security of all of us, our kids, our grandkids,
09:47depends on the United States continuing to keep its word, stand for democracy,
09:54and look out for Americans by being smart and strong and standing up to the bullies.
10:02That's what I will hold this president to.
10:07And I urge my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, to do the same.
10:15I yield the floor.