Pelosi Defends Ukraine on House Floor: “Would You Trust Putin?”

Washington, D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks during a Special Order Hour hosted by the Congressional Ukraine Caucus on the House Floor reaffirming America’s unwavering commitment to the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend their democracy, sovereignty and right to live free from Russian aggression.

In her remarks, Pelosi underscored that Ukraine did not choose this war but has chosen courage in the face of Vladimir Putin’s brutal and unprovoked invasion.

Pelosi warned that abandoning Ukraine would not bring peace but would invite further aggression from Russia and from autocrats around the world watching closely to see whether the United States and its allies will stand by their word.

Watch Pelosi's Floor remarks here.

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Read the transcript of Speaker Emerita Pelosi's Floor remarks below:

Speaker Emerita Pelosi. I salute Marcy Kaptur and the Ukraine Caucus for inviting Members to come together to raise concerns, to speak frankly about the need for strong sanctions on Russia, and to insist that any peace must be just, durable and centered on the Ukrainian people themselves.

Mr. Speaker, for nearly four years the people of Ukraine have stood on the front lines for freedom, defending their democracy, their sovereignty, their right to live in peace on their own land.

But in fighting for democracy there, they are fighting for democracy writ large.

Congresswoman Kaptur spoke beautifully, historically, geographically, chronologically in every way about placing this conflict in time and place.

I wanted to pick up on two parts of it in the time that I have.

One is this. In the conversation about peace, we hear people talk about Ukraine giving up land.

Now, what we're saying to Ukraine is: Russia came in, stole your children, as Congresswoman Kaptur mentioned, tens of thousands of your children taking them into Russia. Imagine if that ever happened to your family.

Secondly, they rape the women. They raped the women. Sometimes in front of the children, sometimes in front of their parents.

I said to some Russian friends, 'Isn't it sad how the Russian troops have become brutes and are raping women as a weapon of war to demoralize the people of the country?'

And they said, 'Make sure you understand one thing: Russian soldiers follow orders. They are doing that because that is what they are told to do.'

In addition to that, we've seen evidence of their killing families in front of family members in such a brutal way.

Kidnap our children, rape our women, destroy and kill our civilian families and ask us to give you land in return.

What a ridiculous, ridiculous request.

The other thing you hear sometimes people say in our country, 'Well, why should we be spending all that money when in fact we have needs in our own country.'

I don't think people realize that 90% of the security that we send to Ukraine is spent—of the 100%, 90% is spent in the United States creating jobs in our own country.

Secondly, there are other forms of assistance, humanitarian assistance—across the board.

At least 60% of all that we spend on Ukraine is spent in the United States of America creating jobs.

So again, Marcy spelled it out, and it's no use—I mean, some things bear repeating, but she said it so beautifully.

But this is awful. And again, who do you trust? Who do you trust?

The Congresswoman spelled it out very clearly. The ridiculous notion that Ukraine should trust the Russians after the Budapest Agreement.

'Give up your nuclear weapons, and we will come to your aid should you need that.'

Forget about it now. So, Ukraine has been treated with great disrespect. Its people have just been subjected to such horror.

They have fought valiantly. The least we could do is do the sanctions.

And what we should be doing in this House, which has overwhelming bipartisan support and support of the people of Ukraine, is to get some more people to sign the discharge petition.

So I thank you again, Congresswoman Kaptur, for your relentless, persistent, dissatisfied advocacy for Ukraine and the fact that we know, those who have visited there, that if Putin takes Ukraine, what country is next?

That's what we hear, the fear we hear from people in the region.

Would you trust Putin? I think the only person who trusted Putin is President Trump.

I don't know what that's about. I know when I had a picture coming out of one of his cabinet meetings pointing to the President, I said, ‘I'm leaving this meeting because, Mr. President, with you all roads lead to Putin.’

This is awful. The richest man in the world they say, Putin is. A villainous person and somebody who uses rape, kidnaping, family killings in order to demoralize a country.

Well, you haven't succeeded. And you are a loser because you thought you were going to win on the first week of this war, and now it's four years later.

With that, I yield back the time to the distinguished Marcy Kaptur.