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Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, in a few minutes, the Senate is going to take a vote of incalculable importance to our national security, to the future of our allies in Europe, and to the very existence of the nation of Ukraine.

Right now, Vladimir Putin has assembled over 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine. More troops and more weapons are arriving every day. Putin yearns to reassemble the old Soviet Union. Putin would see Ukraine wiped off the face of the map.

This is not the first time that the people of Ukraine have had to face down Russian aggression and authoritarianism. Throughout the Cold War and through their independence in 1991, millions of Ukrainians died as they struggled for independence from the Soviet Union and from Soviet Russia.

In 1994, the United States signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. We committed--the United States of America committed--to ensuring Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for Ukraine voluntarily giving up the world's third largest nuclear arsenal, which it had inherited following the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was our commitment, and it is now our national obligation.

Russia, of course, also signed the Budapest Memorandum. Nevertheless, in 2014, thousands of Ukrainians died when Putin invaded Ukraine.

Putin only stopped short of a full invasion because he couldn't endanger the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which he needs to get Russian gas to Europe. He now believes that Nord Stream 2 is a done deal, thanks to President Biden's catastrophic surrender and waiving of the mandatory sanctions passed by Congress.

Putin sees Nord Stream 2 as an alternate route to get his gas to Europe that Ukraine cannot touch, and so he has moved to complete what he couldn't do in 2014. When President Biden waived the sanctions on this Russian pipeline, the governments of Ukraine and Poland warned then that the result would be Russian troops on the border of Ukraine and an imminent invasion. They were right.

In recent weeks, the people of Ukraine and their government--the President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament--they have all called on this body to fulfill the commitment that we made to their nation. They have explicitly and repeatedly called upon the U.S. Senate to pass this bill before us, imposing immediate sanctions on Nord Stream 2.

None of us can know if that will change Putin's calculation, but we must acknowledge, as the people of Ukraine have pleaded with us to understand, that it is the only thing that can do so.

That is why today, in just a few minutes, we will have one last chance to stop the pipeline that Putin built so he can invade Ukraine. For 2 years, this body has had bipartisan consensus and unanimity on standing up to Russia on stopping Nord Stream 2. It is only with a Democrat in the White House that suddenly scores of Democrats have decided partisan loyalty is more important than standing up to Russia; partisan loyalty is more important than stopping Putin; partisan loyalty is more important than standing with our European people allies. And, I would note, ironically, the White House's lead talking point is ``transatlantic unity.'' When the Parliament voted on Nord Stream 2, it voted to condemn and shut down Nord Stream 2 by a vote of 581 to 50--581 to 50. The White House is saying: Stand with the 50. Stand with 9 percent of the European Parliament against 91 percent of the European Parliament.

That makes no sense, and no Democrat uttering those talking points believes it. But there are too many Democrats who are deciding partisan loyalty matters more than standing with our allies. Partisan loyalty means more than standing with our European friends. Partisan loyalty means more than honoring our treaty commitments. Partisan loyalty matters more than protecting the national security of the United States.

For 5 years, Democrats have uttered the words: Russia, Russia, Russia. We will now learn whether they meant those words when they said them, or was that simply animus for President Trump?

We should stand together. If a Republican were in the White House, every Democrat in this Chamber would vote to sanction Nord Stream 2. The only reason not to do so is because, for some Democrats, partisan loyalty matters more than standing up to Russia or defending our national security.

Let me, finally, say: If the Senate votes down these sanctions in just a few minutes, it will effectively give a green light to Putin. That is what the leaders of civil society in Ukraine have told us. And if, as a result of the Senate's vote, the Democrats vote with Russia, with Putin, we may well see in the days or weeks or few months ahead Russian tanks in the streets of Kiev. And every Senator--Democrat or Republican--will remember this moment, this moment we had to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And those Senators who put our obligations to our friends, our obligations to our Nation, our obligations to security above partisan loyalty, they will remember that. And those Senators that didn't, they will remember that.

The eyes of history are on the Senate. There are moments, particularly dealing with war and peace, when the consequences of our actions echo throughout the days. This moment is one of them.

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