Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress makes the following findings: Throughout its history, Ukraine has experienced long periods of occupation. Between 1919 and 1991, Ukraine was brutally ruled by the Soviet Union, whose ruthless policy of agricultural collectivization caused the Holodomor of 1932–1933, a man-made famine that resulted in the death of at least 3,000,000 Ukrainians by starvation. During the violent Nazi occupation of Ukraine accompanying World War II— approximately 3,500,000 Ukrainian civilians and 3,000,000 soldiers were killed; and approximately 1,500,000 Jews were massacred.

Ukraine declared its independence from Moscow in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the Russian Federation, the United States, and the United Kingdom pledged to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine and refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine’s surrender of its nuclear arsenal. From November 2004 through January 2005, thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets to peacefully protest electoral fraud and widespread corruption by the ruling elite in the 2004 Presidential election, successfully triggering a re-vote, in what became known as the Orange Revolution.

During Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity, or Euromaidan, the pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych was forced to resign after thousands of Ukrainians peacefully protested Yanukovych’s decision to reject a closer relationship with the European Union and his continued systemic corruption, and over 100 of those protestors were killed by violent government suppression. Fearful of Ukraine’s strengthened pro-Western orientation after the Revolution of Dignity, the Government of the Russian Federation, in violation of international law and in contravention of its commitments in the Budapest Memorandum— sent undisclosed military personnel into Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea in February 2014 and has illegally occupied the Crimean Peninsula for the past six years; sent covert military personnel into the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in April 2014, instigating and supporting a still-ongoing separatist war that has cost nearly 14,000 lives; and provided the Buk missile system used by those Russian-backed separatists to shoot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

Under Russian control, Crimean authorities have kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured Crimean Tatars, opposition figures, activists, and other minority populations, and have persecuted religious minorities by pressing false charges of terrorism and deregistering religious centers. In September 2014, in an attempt to stop the fighting that the Russian Federation had initiated in eastern Ukraine, France, Germany, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), and Russian-backed rebel leaders from eastern Ukraine signed the Minsk Protocol.

In February 2015, after the failure of the initial Minsk Protocol, the Russian Federation committed to the Minsk II Agreement, the roadmap for resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, signed by the Governments of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany. Despite these agreements, the Government of the Russian Federation continues to violate Ukrainian sovereignty through— manipulation of Ukraine’s dependence on Russian natural gas, including cutting off access in 2014, which deprived Ukraine of its energy supply and transit fees; espionage and clandestine assassinations on Ukrainian territory; continuous cyber warfare against the Government of Ukraine and Ukrainian businesses, such as the NotPetya hack in 2017; and seizure of Ukrainian property and citizens, including the November 2018 seizure in the Kerch Strait of three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 Ukrainian officers on board those vessels.

In July 2018, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo issued the Crimea Declaration and reiterated in February 2020 on the sixth anniversary of Russia’s occupation that Crimea is Ukraine . Since April 2014, at least 4,100 Ukrainian soldiers have died fighting for their country against the Russian Federation and Russian-backed rebels, while no less than 3,361 civilians have perished as a result of that fighting. Despite Ukraine’s tumultuous history and neighborhood, in under 30 years it has risen from the collapse of the Soviet Union to become a developing democracy, steadily working to overcome its Soviet legacy of oppression, oligarchic control, and corruption.

Running on a strong anti-corruption platform, Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the 2019 presidential election with 73 percent of the vote, and his political party, Servant of the People, won a parliamentary majority in the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, marking the first time since independence that one party has controlled the Parliament, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Presidency. The OSCE confirmed the 2019 elections were competitive and fundamental freedoms were generally respected .

Since 2014, the Government of Ukraine has made difficult and substantial reforms in an effort to address corruption and more closely align with the West, such as slimming and decentralizing its bureaucracy, removing immunity from prosecution for Members of Parliament, reforming its gas, pension, and procurement systems, and working to adapt its military to the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Despite progress in reforming many areas of Ukrainian governance, serious issues still remain, particularly in the areas of corruption and rule of law.

The United States Government has consistently supported Ukraine’s democratic transition and its fight against Russian-backed separatists by assisting its governance reform efforts, maintaining robust and coordinated sanctions against the Russian Federation alongside the European Union, and providing the Ukrainian military with training and equipment, including lethal defensive weaponry. In addition to the United States, the European Union, European countries, and Canada have provided substantial diplomatic, monetary, and military support for Ukraine’s democratic transition and its fight against Russian-led separatists in eastern Ukraine, and also have implemented and maintained robust sanctions regimes against the Russian Federation for its illegal occupation of Crimea and its active destabilization of Ukraine. the Government of Ukraine has steadfastly supported the United States and European allies by deploying troops to Iraq, Afghanistan, and NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR), allowing United States military planes to refuel on Ukrainian soil, and trading billions of dollars’ worth of goods and services with the United States.

NATO has recently decided to include Ukraine in its Enhanced Opportunities Partnership in recognition of Ukraine’s contributions to NATO missions and efforts to reform its military in line with NATO standards. Since the Russian Federation's 2014 invasion of Ukraine, the United States Congress has demonstrated its support for Ukraine through the passage of legislation, including the Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014 ( Public Law 113–95 ; 22 U.S.C. 8901 et seq.), the Ukraine Freedom Support Act ( Public Law 113–272 ; 22 U.S.C. 8921 et seq.), the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative established under section 1250 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 ( Public Law 114–92 ; 129 Stat. 1068), the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act ( Public Law 115–44 ), and the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019 ( Public Law 116–92 , title LXXV), and the United States Congress continues to demonstrate strong support for assisting Ukraine in defending itself and deterring Russia.

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