 Thank you all very much for coming. I am returning to Washington today and the Congress with Republicans and Democrats United will be taking action on the horrific invasion by Putin and Russia of an independent country the Ukraine. What I expect well first of all this action by Putin is the first time we've seen a country in Europe invade another country in an active decision premeditated unilateral start a war of choice this is extraordinarily harmful to peace and stability in the world and it's extraordinarily devastating to the innocent people of Ukraine and it is appalling that Putin of Russia made a decision to do this willfully intentionally maliciously and deliberately the response by the United States is going to be strong with sanctions and with humanitarian aid the response from the European Union from countries all over the world is a full condemnation of the action that Putin has taken against Ukraine this week what I expect we will be doing is number one this afternoon I'll be part of a congressional intelligence briefing to get the latest information about what is happening on the ground but we know what's happening on the ground Russia is attacking and the citizens of Ukraine are resisting heroically and insistently and courageously second we will be discussing how to strengthen sanctions and where we are in sanctions today is so far from where we were even a week ago even the Swiss are freezing assets of Russia the sanctions are going to be in our punitive relentless and comprehensive we'll go after the Russian ability to engage in the international economy we'll go after Putin directly and we'll go after the oligarchs who have billions and billions of dollars in assets outside of Russia that the sanctions will seek to freeze third we'll be taking up the question of humanitarian aid our senator Leahy is going to be playing an absolutely major role in humanitarian aid it's estimated already there are about 500,000 Ukrainians mostly women and children who fled the country and all the men as you know are staying behind to fight take up arms against Russia but the United States will do its part to provide humanitarian aid to the innocent citizens of Ukraine fourth we expect to be taking up a military aid package of about 3.5 billion dollars to provide defensive weapons for the resistance by Ukrainians of the attack on their country by Putin this is going to be done on a bipartisan basis Republicans and Democrats are appalled what Putin has done Republicans and Democrats are united in the desire to help with our European Union and allies particularly but allies from around the world both with military aid and with humanitarian aid this is an unprecedented action how it's going to turn out we don't know but what we do know is that with the strength of unity that has been on display here where we're acting together those sanctions in the delivery of military aid have the potential to be significantly effective in helping Ukraine do the impossible in their ongoing resistance of this horrible Russian invasion we've got from honors by the way from Ukraine who are here and on the way up on my drive up here I spoke to a recent Middlebury graduate Marcia Marco to Nina her family lives in Odessa her family last night had a quiet night but she has four colleagues who are students at Middlebury one of them her family spent last night in the subway to avoid the shelling that is underway in many Ukrainian cities so my expectation is that the United States with our allies and arm-in-arm are going to stay the course and do everything we possibly can to help Ukraine resist this Russian invasion thank you two other things I'll just mention number one we will be taking up next week burn pit legislation that I sponsored was championed by Pat Cram in June Heston both of whom lost their husbands to cancer that we believe is related to their service in the vicinity of burn pits and this legislation they've championed I've sponsored we have significant support in Congress and we'll be taking that legislation up this week and of course President Biden is going to be delivering the state of the Union address or state of the Union address this week in I'm bringing a Vermonter virtually who is a child care provider to emphasize the importance of child care so thank you I'm for it I'm for it it's a symbolic effort but it displays our contempt for the action of Putin and what Russia is doing invading Ukraine well it's very worrisome I mean Putin did something people didn't think he was going to do by the way I want to say you know I serve on the intelligence committee and our intelligence community did an extremely good job in providing policymakers with the intelligence that let that displayed what Putin was going to do and as you know the administration made the decision to share that intelligence about the impending invasion with our allies and also with the public and I think that was a great decision because we all knew in real time what was going on and it prohibited Putin from being able to create a pretext to suggest that the invasion he planned and schemed about was caused by some action in the Donbass region but what you're seeing with Putin with him putting his forces on nuclear alert is more escalation of the rhetoric you know as crazy as Putin is and as malicious as he is the idea that we get into a nuclear exchange is horrifying to humanity I know the president in our armed forces are vigilant but all of us hope that we never go near a nuclear exchange. Congressman do you think sanctions are sufficient or should the U.S. in some way be providing arms or military support in any way? We should be providing arms and military aid and we are and before you got here Pat I mentioned this week well that's fine but we will be doing two things Senator Lay he's going to play a major role in this as the chair of our appropriations committee. Humanitarian aid of 3 billion 500 thousand refugees already and military aid of 3.5 billion and of course the European Union including Germany in their first decision of this nature since the Second World War will also be providing military aid and Poland it will also be providing military jets to Ukraine because they're of the kind that the Ukraine pilots are familiar with and can fly so it'll be military aid and humanitarian aid. Should we be prepared for the F-35s here in Burlington to be deployed to Europe for potential fighting near Ukraine? I don't have any information on that at all. There's going to be some pain in the European countries and that's what's so impressive about what the European Union is doing because they'll bear more of the burden internally on their economies with the imposition of sanctions than we will although we're going to feel it here as well especially with not so much sanctions but with the price of oil which is really tough on families but the European Union has stepped forward because they see this is an intolerable threat to peace and stability in Europe but there is there is pain associated with the sanctions that will be shared by European Union. Do you think Putin cares about sanctions? He says he doesn't but he will. I mean we've seen that the ruble is declined already by 30%. We're getting reports that some of the oligarchs are raising questions with Putin about how this is going to impact the economy. The report today of the meeting that Putin had with his economic advisors was that it was as far as Putin was concerned it was nonchalant was full of bluster but his economic advisors who have to pick up the pieces as the ruble collapses look very worried and concerned. There will be. You know the refugees are largely going to be in Europe as you know and this is a situation where I think those refugees by and larger desperate to get home as soon as they can. So this is and we want to help them but what I see is that the likely outcome here if we're successful in resisting the takeover of Ukraine by Putin is that people will want to return to their homes and families as you know the stories they're moving. You've got dads who are taking their what their their partners and their kids to the border and kissing them goodbye in returning to key to a desa to Merrill Paul to take up the fight. I mean this is everybody basically from 16 to 60 is taking up the fight and it's just impossible for us to imagine what it's like for those families. But all the reports from key from our reporters that are over there is that there is a defiant sense of optimism and a willingness on the part of people who are under enormous sense of danger to help one another. But there's definitely minimum going to be enormous dislocation that five hundred thousand could easily go up a lot more especially if Russia starts the massive wholesale shelling of urban areas. What do you make of some of the far right conservative apologists for what's going on by Putin in Ukraine? Well I was appalled by what former president Trump said basically complimenting Putin for being quote savvy. Savage is the better word. Congressman do you think there's anything else that can be done from here in Vermont aside from say pulling with Russian lacrosse shelves? Is there any other way that folks here in Vermont can either support Ukraine and show solidarity? Is there anything that you have in mind specifically for our brave little state here? Well thank you but I you know there'll be places where we can contribute to help those refugees and I think we'll investigate that and put something up on our website to see to try to get an outlet to Vermonters. But you know we've got you know all of us are horrified and it's happening thousands and thousands of miles away. But all of us can imagine what it would be like you know if we're in Burlington, we're in Rutland, we're in Brattleburg, we're in Lindenville and suddenly we're getting reports that 15 miles away are these massive tanks and artillery cannons and then we're hearing about buildings in our cities being struck by missiles. We've seen those images and just think of what that is. So we're all horrified by it because we all have families, we have communities that we care about and that's the savagery of what Putin is doing. So anything that we can do whether it's symbolic or real you know taking the liquor off the shelf is it's not going to change the outcome but it's a way of expressing our solidarity with Ukrainians. And if there's ways that we can contribute financially to make certain that that helps the refugees, then we will. But our government is going to step up and do what I know Vermonters want us to do. That's help the Ukrainians defend themselves and feed themselves. Military aid, humanitarian aid. And that's from all of us. Congressman sorry if I missed this in your initial comments, but we have the state of the union coming up this week. What do you expect from it? And secondarily, how much do you anticipate the president will use the speech to talk about Ukraine? Well, he's going to talk about Ukraine. That's a real threat to world peace. So that will be a major part of the speech. I'm sure he'll also be talking about the economy and about inflation and about COVID and how we're moving into a new phase. You know, the mask mandates are being lifted in many places. We're going back to school. We're getting back to work. And it's top the inflation that we're all dealing with is tough. And it's a significant factor related to COVID to supply change the disruption that we've had. So the president I'm expecting will be speaking about all of those things. I just wanted to ask about just the general posture that the West should be taking a day to be taking right now. A few minutes ago, you referred to President Putin as crazy. So how how do we deal with crazy? The way we're dealing with it is doing things that are within our control to do. And that's sanctions and it's humanitarian aid and military aid. And the irony here is Putin's goal was to divide the West. He's failed. He's united the West. That's what's happened. I mean, Switzerland has always been neutral. They are freezing Russian assets. That's how significant this is. So we have seen I mean, I got to give the Biden administration some credit for doing all the work early on to start rebuilding trust in NATO and in the European Union. So that when the moment came, there was a baseline of trust. But what has really united us is the appalling action on the part of Putin to invade an independent country and start killing innocent civilians. Killing innocent civilians. He's doing that. And that's what's created the unity. So Putin has always bluffing bluster. But with these sanctions, they're going to have a significant impact on his economy. Now he doesn't particularly care about the people. He's doing immense amount of repression. And we're seeing reports of demonstrations throughout Russia against this. But he can have all the bluster he wants. But when his ruble is collapsing just overnight by 30%. When oligarchs are starting to have their apartments near yachts, their luxury real estate seized in various countries. That takes its toll over time. Not overnight, but over time. Congressman, if it does take some time for these sanctions to have the full desired economic impact, though, do you think there's a chance for Putin to think, you know, it's not enough and he's going to just continue moving forward if that impact is immediate? Well, the dilemma that I think we all know is that he's got all his troops on the border or inside of Ukraine. And what is going to take to have them turn back? The reports that we're having in their sketchy is that the resistance has been far more effective than Putin and Russia anticipated. So we don't know how this is ultimately going to turn out. What we know is that Putin made a savage decision that appears to be a real miscalculation. He's unified Europe, NATO, EU. And he's really put his own economy in enormous peril. I do not I don't want to say that, but it's very, very dangerous. And in fact, we've got an isolated Russia. And we've got a united rest of the world, essentially. Those world wars were everybody fighting everybody. Essentially, what we have is a act by one autocratic leader to invade the country, an independent country, and the world is largely united in opposition to what he did. You're a college. Did you think we'd get to this point? Well, the only reason that I think I and many people thought we would not necessarily get to this point is that it's just such a reckless, horrible thing for Putin to do. You know, we had the troops there. Our intelligence committee was saying he was poised to go. They were predicting he would go. The president was sharing that information. But as you saw in Europe, it was still unthinkable that one country would actually invade another. And partly that the reason people thought he might not is that the consequence to Russia could be catastrophic. I mean, this is an action by an autocratic leader with no checks and balances on his rash decision that could end up doing an enormous amount of harm to his own country. And it already has. Congressman, theoretically, if Putin can be stopped, what should the world do about him? Or are you concerned that the world will say, Okay, if you can ignore him again? Well, Putin's a war criminal. I mean, he's unilaterally attacking and killing innocent people. And what can we do as long as he stays in Russia? I mean, he's not going to show up at court. But we're doing a lot that is showing the condemnation that is widely shared by the world community about his action. And that is the sanctions and it's coming providing military aid, and it's going to be providing humanitarian aid as well. Well, thank you. Good to see everybody. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you guys.