Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Leading A Congressional Delegation To Ukraine And The Vital Importance Of Passing The Bipartisan National Security Supplemental Package

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor after returning from leading a congressional delegation to visit Ukraine to meet with President Zelenskyy and reiterated that it is vital to pass support for the people of Ukraine. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

This past weekend, I led a Congressional Delegation unlike any I’ve been a part of before, to visit with the people of Ukraine as they marked two years since the start of Putin’s illegal invasion. It was one of the most memorable and moving trips I’ve ever been on, three days that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

We traveled to Ukraine because we all felt a deep obligation to be there on the ground, now as the war reaches a pivotal turning point.

As President Zelenskyy said to us, if Ukraine gets the armaments they need they will win the war. But, if they don’t get those armaments they will lose.

We went because this is an inflection point in history, the future of Ukraine, but not just Ukraine, but Western democracy hangs in the balance.

We went because the Ukrainian people needed to hear directly from us that America stands by their side, that we will not turn our backs on them during their fight for survival.

And we went because the nations of Europe must know that America will not abandon them, that we must stay a part of NATO, and that we in the Senate will ensure the greatest alliance the world has ever known remains strong and remains prosperous.

I thank my colleagues who joined our CODEL: Senators Reed, Blumenthal, Bennet, and Hassan. It was an immensely productive and insightful and sobering trip.

We were honored, above all, to meet with President Zelenskyy, whose courage and resolve are an inspiration. He was an amazing man. He still has strength. He still has that optimism that Ukraine can win this war, and he keeps the people together. To watch him was awe-inspiring—a man with so much on his shoulders, moving forward, doing the right thing, and doing it with vigor and without complaint. As I mentioned, during our meeting, the president was blunt: he said if Ukraine gets the aid currently stalled in the House, they will win the war. But he also said that if Congress does not pass the supplemental—with all the ammo and anti-air defenses and long range artillery it would provide—they will lose. It was that simple: with aid, Ukraine wins, and without it, they lose.

We learned about the details of what they need. I spoke to a Ukrainian army officer. Their drones are extremely, extremely precise. In fact, they’re probably even better than the ones we have now. And the drones can find out where the Russian artillery is, exactly and precisely. But then, they don’t have the ammo to take out that Russian artillery because they lack that ammo. It’s so frustrating to this soldier who is doing his job, risking his life. And then we heard another instance that Ukrainian artillery is not as long-ranged now— because we haven’t given them what they need, and it is in the supplemental—as the Russian artillery. So Russian artillery can fire and take out Ukrainian artillery, then Ukrainian artillery can’t fire back because they don’t have the reach of the Russian artillery. We heard these stories over and over again.

We learned how the withdrawal in Avdiivka was in large part a consequence of insufficient weaponry. The top Ukranian generals told us if they would have had adequate armaments, Avdiivka would not have fallen. And now they are being pushed back on the front – not because they lack courage, not because they lack strength, not because they lack good leadership, but only because they don’t have the weaponry they need. We must help them, and any American who thinks this is far away and doesn’t matter hasn’t learned the lessons – learned the lessons – of 1938 and 1960. It is not an exact analogy, of course. But back then, people said this is far away and that we don’t have to pay attention. But in both instances, Americans paid for that lack of foresight, that lack of strength, that lack of vision with lives, and of course, billions and trillions of dollars spent—certainly billions in those days.

But there was no moment was more heart-wrenching, no moment better crystalized the stakes and costs of this awful war, than with the new head of the Ukrainian army, General Syrskyi, we paid a visit to a cemetery dedicated to the courageous Ukrainian dead. Four months earlier, he told us, it was just a parking lot in Lviv, but they needed a place to bury the so-many dead. We walked up and down the grave sites, and saw the pictures of the men, women, young, old of the dead on their tombstones. They had a picture on each one, and then if you looked across the way, Ukrainians were busy building, digging more graves for those they knew who would die in the next few months. It was an amazing, moving moment of the stalwartness of the Ukrainian people, the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

So, I believe that if others in Congress saw what we saw, heard what we heard, and learned what we learned, they would understand the urgency of passing the supplemental.

With this urgent aid package, Congress has a chance to ensure Ukraine wins the war, to ensure Putin is not victorious, and to ensure that Western democracy can thrive in the twenty-first century. Let me say, if our allies see that America doesn’t support its ally, Ukraine, they will no longer be our allies. They will know they cannot depend on America, and even worse, if the autocrats, the vicious dictators like Putin, like Xi, like the heads of North Korea and Iran see that the United States will turn away from a challenge like this, they will be emboldened. Anyone who thinks that this is far away, that this doesn’t have consequences for the American people are wrong. If we turn away from Ukraine, over the next decade – the next several decades – the American people and America will pay the price diplomatically, politically, economically, militarily. It’s a moment, and history is looking at us, so we must do it.

I urged Speaker Johnson to come visit and see what I saw. No person of any decent conscious and sight would vote no if they saw what we saw.

I hope Speaker Johnson does the right thing. I hope he puts the supplemental that we passed here in with 70 votes on the floor of the House. I am confident—absolutely confident— that if Speaker Johnson were to put this supplemental on the floor, it would pass with strong bipartisan support like it did in the Senate.

I hope—I pray—for the sake of our values, for the sake of our country, for the sake of the brave people in Ukraine and those who have died in this war, I hope Speaker Johnson recognizes the that history is watching us and watching him, that the world is watching us, that if he does the wrong thing, I am confident he will regret it for years to come, no matter what the political outcome. And I hopeful that Speaker Johnson will not just, in blind obeisance to Donald Trump, do what just about everybody who studies this issue knows is the wrong thing and not give Ukraine the aid it needs.

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