The House of Representatives on March 23 overwhelmingly passed House Resolution 162 “calling on the president to provide Ukraine with military assistance to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The vote was 348 for and 48 against. The measure resolved that “the House of Representatives strongly urges the president to fully and immediately exercise the authorities provided by Congress to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapon systems to enhance the ability of the people of Ukraine to defend their sovereign territory from the unprovoked and continuing aggression of the Russian Federation The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Engel and had 12 cosponsors.
Keeping up the pressure on President Obama and his administration was a March 24 letter from the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, in which Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) wrote: “First, you should designate Ukraine as a Major Non-NATO Ally. Second, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2015 contains $175 million within the European Reassurance Initiative Fund specifically to provide aid to Ukraine and the Baltic states. We request that a substantial amount of funding be reprogrammed to that fund thereby increasing the amount of funding available for assistance.”
Reps. Frelinghuysen and Visclosky, along with six other members of the Defense Subcommittee, had recently returned from a bipartisan fact-finding trip to Kyiv, where they met with President Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak to discuss ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine. Delegation members told President Obama that the situation in Ukraine is “alarming”: “As you are aware, President Putin is using Ukraine as a test bed for a new type of warfare by using state-sponsored insurgents to carry out his campaign. The Russians are clearly managing the command and control of the insurgency and have invaded Ukraine using the façade of this insurgency for plausible deniability. Additionally, Russia is overwhelmingly winning the communication battle in Europe and Ukraine itself and is showing success in dividing Ukraine’s neighbors.”
On April 30, there was yet more information, and confirmation, that Russia was directing the “rebels” in Ukraine. The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials briefed on intelligence from the region said Russia had significantly deepened its command and control of separatist forces in recent months. That led the U.S. to quietly introduce a new term, “combined Russian-separatist forces,” with the State Department using the expression three times in a single statement lambasting them for a series of ceasefire violations.
On May 27, the U.S. announced $18 million in additional U.S. humanitarian assistance to help those affected by Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The funds from the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration were to support the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Population Fund to meet the most critical protection and assistance needs of persons affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including the provision of food, hygiene items, medical supplies, and essential household items such as blankets, plastic sheeting and construction materials to repair homes.
An important report on the extent of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was released by the Atlantic Council on May 28. Titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine,” it drew on open source material and used social media posts to track the movement of Russian soldiers and equipment across the border into Ukraine. “There would be no conflict in Ukraine today but for Putin’s strategy to provoke one,” said Damon Wilson, the Atlantic Council’s executive vice-president of programs and strategy, and one of the report’s five co-authors. “We don’t have a Ukraine problem, we have a Putin problem.” The 36-page report said satellite images confirmed the movement of Russian troops and camp build-ups along the Ukrainian border, and that Russia was sending soldiers and military equipment from these “staging grounds” into Ukraine. The report further asserted that Russian commanders order their troops to conceal the identifying features of military vehicles and remove insignia from their uniforms before joining separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
Atlantic Council
At the launch of the Atlantic Council’s report “Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine” and the release of the English version of “Putin. War”: (from left) Susan Glasser, editor of Politico and moderator of the discussion; Ilya Yashin, a leader of the pro-democracy Republican Party of Russia-People’s Freedom Party; Damon Wilson, executive vice-president at the Atlantic Council; Sergey Aleksashenko, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Ambassador John Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center.
On September 30, the United States announced an additional $7.5 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance for those affected by the conflict in Ukraine, bringing total U.S. humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the start of the crisis to nearly $69 million. The funding was to support efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to meet critical protection and assistance needs, including by supporting family reunification efforts and providing food, hygiene items, medical supplies, emergency shelter material and essential household items such as blankets. The U.S. also reiterated its call for full and unfettered access to ensure humanitarian relief can reach civilians in need.
On October 16 the U.S. announced nearly $15 million in additional humanitarian assistance through U.S. Agency for International Aid Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. The funds were for emergency shelter assistance to help more than 35,000 people get through the upcoming winter and to provide safe drinking water and support hygiene and sanitation programs to stem the spread of disease. The assistance was meant also to provide employment opportunities to get people and businesses back on their feet and help households replace lost assets.
On November 14 the United States delivered two AN/TPQ-36 radar systems to Ukraine at a ceremony in Yavoriv, Lviv Oblast. President Poroshenko had the opportunity to review the equipment and was briefed by U.S. military personnel on its capabilities. The U.S. Embassy Kyiv pointed out that the radar systems will help defend Ukrainian military personnel and civilians against rocket and artillery attacks, the most lethal threat to Ukrainian personnel and civilians. The equipment was delivered on a rapid timeline – less than two months after President Obama delegated to the secretary of state the authority to draw down up to $20 million in defense articles and services and up to $1.5 million in non-lethal commodities and services to provide these systems to Ukraine. The provision of these systems brought total U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine in response to the crisis to more than $265 million since 2014.
U.S. Embassy Kyiv
The scene at the airport in Yavoriv, where the U.S. delivered two counter-battery radar systems to Ukraine to bolster the country’s defense and internal security operations.
Toward the end of the year, on November 25, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, which authorized, among other things, $300 million in assistance for Ukrainian forces fighting Russian-backed militants, including $50 million for defensive lethal assistance and counter-artillery radars. “We welcome this important decision that has demonstrated unity in the positions of the U.S. administration and Congress in support of Ukraine in countering Russian military aggression,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement.
The U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, held a briefing on “Human Rights Violations in Russian-Occupied Crimea” on December 12, 2015. The discussion featured a panel of activists who are working to keep the world’s attention focused on the troubling human rights dimensions of Crimea’s illegal annexation by Russia. Orest Deychakiwsky, a policy advisor at the Helsinki Commission who chaired the briefing, in his opening remarks emphasized: “Russia’s forcible and illegal occupation of Ukraine’s sovereign territory of Crimea in March 2014 resulted in a deplorable human rights situation and other serious consequences that continue to this day. Changes in government and the legal framework in Crimea following the attempted annexation have had a toxic impact on human rights and fundamental freedoms. Violations of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights are widespread, especially against those who oppose the Russian occupation, including Crimean Tatars and other ethnic, political and religious groups.” Mr. Deychakiwsky pointed out that Russia’s takeover of Crimea was not internationally recognized and “both the [U.S.] administration and Congress have addressed the Russian occupation of Crimea in various ways, including through legislation and through concrete sanctions against Russia, including Crimea-specific sanctions.”
In an effort to address the international legal obligations of Russia as an occupying power in Crimea, a group of experts, researchers and activists released a report titled “Human Rights on Occupied Territory: Case of Crimea.” Published by the VOLYA Institute for Contemporary Law and Society and the Ukrainian American organization Razom, the report emphasized that “according to the international law on occupation, the Russian Federation as an occupying power is obliged to ensure that everyone is treated humanely and without discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or any other basis.” Testimony at the Helsinki Commission was provided by Ivanna Bilych, a New York attorney and one of the co-authors of the report; Bohdan Yaremenko, a leader of the Ukrainian NGO Maidan of Foreign Affairs and a former diplomat; Andriy Klymenko, chief editor of Black Sea News and a prominent economist, originally from Crimea; and Yuriy Yatsenko, an activist of the Revolution of Dignity who was illegally imprisoned in Russia on political grounds in May 2014, suffering brutal torture and criminal prosecution.
Yaroslav Brisiuck, the deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S., thanked the Helsinki Commission for holding the briefing: “There’s nothing more important to Ukraine, to the government, to civil society, the NGOs, to all citizens of Ukraine than stopping Russian aggression, the continued occupation of Crimea and egregious human rights abuses. We must not allow this topic to fall off the radar and be out-shadowed by other crises of today.”
U.S. officials visit Ukraine
During the year, there were a number of visits by U.S. officials to Ukraine. Among them were the following.
House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frelinghuysen led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Ukraine that met on March 11 with President Poroshenko. Delegation members were: Reps. Granger, Visclosky, Kaptur, John Carter (R-Texas), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). The delegation met with President Poroshenko and members of his Cabinet. Discussions centered on the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. The delegation discussed further U.S. military and economic support for Ukraine as it fights Russia-backed separatists and Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine. President Poroshenko told the members of Congress that the Ukrainian nation is paying a high price for freedom and independence, and that Ukrainian warriors are demonstrating heroism and courage while defending peace in Europe. “Every Ukrainian understands that we are struggling for freedom and democracy of the entire European continent and, probably, the entire world,” he said.
Rep. Frelinghuysen later noted in a message to constituents: “The people and the government of Ukraine deserve praise for their courageous defense of their independence and sovereignty in the face of brutal attacks by Russian-armed separatists and Russian soldiers. This violence continues even after the Minsk ‘ceasefire’ went into effect. In anticipation of further Russian efforts to destabilize Ukraine and seize additional territory, I believe the United States should approve additional measures to help Ukraine defend its sovereign territory, including the transfer of lethal, defensive weapons systems to the Ukrainian military.”
Sen. McCain, speaking on June 20 at a joint press briefing in Kyiv with Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Barrasso, said the U.S. must lead the free world in countering Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine and must urgently provide Ukraine with defensive weapons, intelligence and any necessary assistance. “We will urge President Barack Obama to implement the will of the Congress and that of the American people,” he said, arguing that the current reluctant support of Ukraine by the United States and Europe is “shameful and disgraceful.” The delegation of U.S. senators took part in a series of meetings with Ukrainian leaders, including the president and prime minister, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and members of a congressional delegation on August 5 visited the Maidan, where they placed flowers on a memorial for the Heavenly Brigade. During their visit to Ukraine’s capital they also met with President Petro Poroshenko and other leaders. Members of the delegation, all Democrats, were Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Anna Eshoo of California, Chellie Pingree of Maine, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Marc Veasey of Texas. A release from the Democratic minority leader’s office noted that the congressional delegation was focused on national, economic and energy security. “It is with great humility that our delegation comes to Maidan. We observed from afar the courage, the self-determination of the people of Ukraine to have a more democratic, open, transparent society. So, we come in solidarity with them. We come in sympathy for those who lost their lives speaking out for freedom. We come with great sadness, great sadness as to how this could possibly happen. We come with great respect for the Revolution of Dignity,” Rep. Pelosi said.