UKRAINE; Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 43

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UKRAINE

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, conditions are bad in Ukraine, and

they are getting worse. Vladimir Putin's war is escalating in severity

and scale.

This past Sunday, we received the first public reports that Russia is

now deploying proxy fighters to Ukraine. Putin put out the call to

action in Syria, Southeast Asia, and Chechnya, and now the mercenaries

are pouring in. On Tuesday, we heard further allegations that as many

as 1,000 proxy fighters from the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will

deploy to Ukraine and attack Kyiv.

This latest news about proxy developments makes it even more obvious

how willfully blind the President has been to the disaster unfolding in

Ukraine. If you look back at footage from the past few months, it is

clear that the Biden administration thought they would be able to talk

Putin out of this. They thought they could send in the diplomats, offer

a few concessions, pat everyone on the back, and head home. But while

they were lining up their talking points, Vladimir Putin was lining up

bodies to throw at Ukrainian defenses.

When we first started to debate the threat that the Chinese Communist

Party poses to the free world, it took a lot of time to convince the

skeptics of China's tight hold on the global order. Through the Belt

and Road Initiative, cheap telecom build-outs, and control over

important supply chains, Beijing has created spheres of economic

influence all across the globe.

The Kremlin has done the same thing with its proxies. But it is

important to remember that this is not new information. The existence

of Wagner and other Russian proxy groups is not a secret, and neither

is their brutal history.

This won't be Wagner's first time in Ukraine. If fact, that is where

these mercenaries actually got started. But for the past decade, they

have been wreaking havoc all across Africa. Again, this is no secret.

We know for a fact that they have caused chaos and bloodshed in Syria,

Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Central African

Republic and that they have helped turn Mali into yet another \\\`\\\`hermit

kingdom.'' And what have the Russians received in return? They have

gotten access to oilfields, diamond mines, silver, gold, and other

extremely valuable natural resources.

By using his proxies, Putin gets the best of all worlds. He is able

to force open doors into strategically important areas. He will then

suck them dry of their natural resources and make his own name

synonymous with violence in the face of resistance.

Furthermore, mercenaries exist outside the bounds of laws and norms,

which means groups like Wagner operate with impunity and give cover and

plausible deniability to Moscow. In their opinion, it is the perfect

legal fiction.

Meanwhile, these proxy fighters have been accused of abductions,

torture, and rape. They murder journalists and conduct summary

executions on behalf of their Kremlin overlords. They target civilian

populations with the specific purpose of terrorizing innocents and

eliminating dissent, and when they are done, they simply disappear.

That is what Vladimir Putin is preparing to unleash on the brave

Ukrainian people.

I sent, and other Members joined me--we have insisted since February

24 that this is not a special military operation; this is a war. But by

bringing proxies into the mix, Putin has signaled that he is prepared

to do more than inflict violence on key strategic targets; he is

preparing for a massacre.

This isn't a head fake. He knows exactly what he is doing because he

has done it before. He is following the Syria playbook to the letter,

from the booby-trapped humanitarian corridors to his use of cluster

bombs, to the presence of proxies to carry out his dirty deeds.

It is no wonder that Moscow has ordered their fighters to travel with

mobile crematoriums. It is the only way they will be able to even

attempt to cover up the brutality inflicted by Putin's private army.

Over the past few months, Putin has shown us exactly what he intends

to do to the brave Ukrainian people. He has made no attempt to hide

behind diplomacy. His military commits war crimes in broad daylight for

the benefit of the cameras. The introduction of proxies is the natural

progression of this increasingly savage attack.

It is time for President Biden to pull the blinders off and decide

what America's response ought to be, and he has to do that right now.

We have deprioritized the African theater for far too long, and now

it is a breeding ground for glorified terror squads. That absolutely

has to change. Russia is using proxies this very moment to destabilize

and exploit Mali. We know what they did to the people of Syria. The

pictures were too graphic for the nightly news. It is time to remind

the world what happened there and make it clear that unless we do

something, Ukraine is next.

We must also send a strong signal to Putin, Wagner, and other thugs

around the world that there will be no more hiding. Collect the

evidence now. Document the war crimes now. Prepare for prosecutions

now. We must let Vladimir Putin know that no amount of propaganda can

cover up the atrocities that he and his private army plan to commit

against the people of Ukraine. But we have to do it before it is too

late to free the world from Moscow's grip.

I yield the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

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