Ukraine Security Partnership Act of 2021

II Calendar No. 49 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 814 To promote security partnership with Ukraine, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 17 (legislative day, MARCH 16), 2021 Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. BARRASSO, Mrs. SHAHEEN, and Mr. GRAHAM) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Re- lations APRIL 26, 2021 Reported by Mr. MENENDEZ, with an amendment [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] A BILL To promote security partnership with Ukraine, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ukraine Security Part- 4 nership Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Apr 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 2 •S 814 RS SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress makes the following findings: 2 (1) Throughout its history, Ukraine has experi- 3 enced several long periods of occupation. 4 (2) Between 1919 and 1991, Ukraine was bru- 5 tally ruled by the Soviet Union, whose policy of agri- 6 cultural collectivization caused the Holodomor of 7 1932–1933, a man-made famine that resulted in the 8 death of at least 3,000,000 Ukrainians by starva- 9 tion. 10 (3) During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine ac- 11 companying World War II— 12 (A) approximately 3,500,000 Ukrainian ci- 13 vilians and 3,000,000 soldiers were killed; and 14 (B) approximately 1,500,000 Jews were 15 massacred. 16 (4) Ukraine declared its independence from 17 Moscow in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet 18 Union. 19 (5) In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the 20 Russian Federation, the United States, and the 21 United Kingdom pledged to ‘‘respect the independ- 22 ence and sovereignty and the existing borders of 23 Ukraine’’ and ‘‘refrain from the threat or use of 24 force against the territorial integrity or political 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 3 •S 814 RS independence of Ukraine’’ in exchange for Ukraine’s 1 surrender of its nuclear arsenal. 2 (6) From November 2004 through January 3 2005, thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets to 4 peacefully protest electoral fraud and widespread 5 corruption by the ruling elite in the 2004 Presi- 6 dential election, successfully triggering a re-vote, in 7 what became known as the Orange Revolution. 8 (7) During Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dig- 9 nity, or Euromaidan, the pro-Russian government of 10 President Viktor Yanukovych was forced to resign 11 after thousands of Ukrainians peacefully protested 12 Yanukovych’s decision to reject a closer relationship 13 with the European Union and his continued systemic 14 corruption, and over 100 of those protestors were 15 killed by violent government suppression. 16 (8) Fearful of Ukraine’s strengthened pro- 17 Western orientation after the Revolution of Dignity, 18 the Government of the Russian Federation, in viola- 19 tion of international law and in contravention of its 20 commitments in the Budapest Memorandum— 21 (A) sent undisclosed military personnel 22 into Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea 23 in February 2014 and has illegally occupied the 24 Crimean Peninsula for the past six years; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 4 •S 814 RS (B) sent covert, unmarked military per- 1 sonnel into the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk 2 and Luhansk in April 2014, instigating and 3 supporting a still-ongoing conflict that has cost 4 nearly 14,000 lives; and 5 (C) provided the Buk missile system used 6 by those Russia-backed forces to shoot down 7 Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern 8 Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 pas- 9 sengers and crew on board. 10 (9) Under Russian control, Crimean authorities 11 have kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured Crimean 12 Tatars, opposition figures, activists, and other mi- 13 nority populations, and have persecuted religious mi- 14 norities by pressing false charges of terrorism and 15 deregistering religious centers. 16 (10) In September 2014, in an attempt to stop 17 the fighting that the Russian Federation had initi- 18 ated in eastern Ukraine, France, Germany, Ukraine, 19 the Russian Federation, the Organization for Secu- 20 rity and Cooperation (OSCE), and Russia-backed 21 forces from eastern Ukraine signed the Minsk Pro- 22 tocol. 23 (11) In February 2015, after the failure of the 24 initial Minsk Protocol, the Russian Federation com- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 5 •S 814 RS mitted to the Minsk II Agreement, the roadmap for 1 resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, signed by 2 the Governments of Ukraine, Russia, France, and 3 Germany. 4 (12) Despite these agreements, the Government 5 of the Russian Federation continues to violate 6 Ukrainian sovereignty through— 7 (A) manipulation of Ukraine’s dependence 8 on Russian natural gas, including cutting off 9 access in 2014, which deprived Ukraine of its 10 energy supply and transit fees; 11 (B) espionage and clandestine assassina- 12 tions on Ukrainian territory; 13 (C) continuous cyber warfare against the 14 Government of Ukraine and Ukrainian busi- 15 nesses, such as the NotPetya hack in 2017; and 16 (D) seizure of Ukrainian property and citi- 17 zens, including the November 2018 seizure in 18 the Kerch Strait of three Ukrainian naval ves- 19 sels and 24 Ukrainian officers on board those 20 vessels. 21 (13) In July 2018, Secretary of State Michael 22 R. Pompeo issued the Crimea Declaration and reit- 23 erated in February 2020 on the sixth anniversary of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 6 •S 814 RS Russia’s illegal occupation that ‘‘Crimea is 1 Ukraine’’. 2 (14) On February 26, 2021, President Joseph 3 R. Biden confirmed that Crimea is Ukraine and the 4 United States does not and will never recognize Rus- 5 sia’s purported annexation of the peninsula. 6 (15) Since April 2014, at least 4,100 Ukrainian 7 soldiers have died fighting for their country against 8 the Russian Federation and Russia-backed forces, 9 while no less than 3,361 civilians have perished as 10 a result of that fighting. 11 (16) Despite Ukraine’s tumultuous history and 12 neighborhood, in under 30 years it has risen from 13 the collapse of the Soviet Union to become a devel- 14 oping democracy, steadily working to overcome its 15 Soviet legacy of oppression, oligarchic control, and 16 corruption. 17 (17) Running on a strong anti-corruption plat- 18 form, Volodymyr Zelensky won the 2019 presidential 19 election with 73 percent of the vote, and his political 20 party, Servant of the People, won a parliamentary 21 majority in the Ukrainian parliament. 22 (18) The OSCE confirmed the 2019 elections 23 were ‘‘competitive and fundamental freedoms were 24 generally respected’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 7 •S 814 RS (19) Since 2014, the Government of Ukraine 1 has made difficult and substantial reforms in an ef- 2 fort to address corruption and more closely align 3 with the West, such as slimming and decentralizing 4 its bureaucracy, removing immunity from prosecu- 5 tion for Members of Parliament, reforming its gas, 6 pension, and procurement systems, and working to 7 adapt its military to the standards of the North At- 8 lantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 9 (20) Despite progress in reforming many areas 10 of Ukrainian governance, serious issues still remain, 11 particularly in the areas of corruption and rule of 12 law. 13 (21) The United States Government has con- 14 sistently supported Ukraine’s democratic transition 15 and its fight against Russia-backed forces by assist- 16 ing its governance reform efforts, maintaining ro- 17 bust and coordinated sanctions against the Russian 18 Federation alongside the European Union, and pro- 19 viding the Ukrainian military with training and 20 equipment, including lethal defensive weaponry. 21 (22) In addition to the United States, the Eu- 22 ropean Union, European countries, and Canada have 23 provided substantial diplomatic, monetary, and mili- 24 tary support for Ukraine’s democratic transition and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 8 •S 814 RS its fight against Russia-backed forces in eastern 1 Ukraine, and also have implemented and maintained 2 robust sanctions regimes against the Russian Fed- 3 eration for its illegal occupation of Crimea and its 4 active destabilization of Ukraine. 5 (23) the Government of Ukraine has steadfastly 6 supported the United States and European allies by 7 deploying troops to Iraq, Afghanistan, and NATO’s 8 Kosovo Force (KFOR), allowing United States mili- 9 tary planes to refuel on Ukrainian soil, and trading 10 billions of dollars’ worth of goods and services with 11 the United States. 12 (24) NATO has recently decided to include 13 Ukraine in its Enhanced Opportunities Partnership 14 in recognition of Ukraine’s contributions to NATO 15 missions and efforts to reform its military in line 16 with NATO standards. 17 (25) Since the Russian Federation’s 2014 inva- 18 sion of Ukraine, the United States Congress has 19 demonstrated its support for Ukraine through the 20 passage of legislation, including the Support for the 21 Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic 22 Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014 (Public Law 113– 23 95; 22 U.S.C. 8901 et seq.), the Ukraine Freedom 24 Support Act (Public Law 113–272; 22 U.S.C. 8921 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 9 •S 814 RS et seq.), the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative 1 established under section 1250 of the National De- 2 fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Pub- 3 lic Law 114–92; 129 Stat. 1068), the Countering 4 America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Pub- 5 lic Law 115–44), and the Protecting Europe’s En- 6 ergy Security Act of 2019 (Public Law 116–92, title 7 LXXV), and the United States Congress continues 8 to demonstrate strong support for assisting Ukraine 9 in defending itself and deterring Russia. 10 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 11 It is the sense of Congress that— 12 (1) Ukraine stands as a bulwark against the 13 malign influence of the Russian Federation in Eu- 14 rope, and robust United States support for Ukraine 15 is vital to United States national security and dem- 16 onstrates the commitment of the United States to 17 upholding a free and open international order; 18 (2) since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the 19 Government and people of Ukraine have made sig- 20 nificant strides towards improved governance, rule of 21 law, anti-corruption measures, and economic re- 22 forms; 23 (3) Ukraine’s long-term viability is directly con- 24 nected to its efforts to reduce corruption and build 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 10 •S 814 RS strong democratic institutions that are able to de- 1 fend against internal and external corrupt actors; 2 (4) the efforts and sacrifices of Ukrainian citi- 3 zens to determine their own fate after centuries of 4 oppression, through democratic representation and 5 governance reforms, is evidence of that country’s 6 dedication to a free, independent, and democratic fu- 7 ture; 8 (5) Ukraine has proven itself to be a valuable 9 security partner of the United States, not simply a 10 recipient of assistance; 11 (6) it is in the national security interests of the 12 United States to continue and deepen its security 13 partnership with Ukraine, including through the 14 provision of both lethal and non-lethal assistance; 15 (7) the United States should continue to place 16 policy-based conditions on Ukraine’s receipt of finan- 17 cial and military assistance, as that mechanism has 18 proven effective in incentivizing reforms in Ukraine; 19 (8) the United States should use its voice and 20 vote at NATO to encourage the adoption of a policy 21 by the Alliance that all of its member states will 22 refuse to recognize the illegal attempted annexation 23 of Crimea by the Russian Federation; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 11 •S 814 RS (9) the United States should continue to bolster 1 the capacity of the Ukrainian Navy as it strives to 2 fulfill the goals it set out in its ‘‘Strategy of the 3 Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 4 2035’’; 5 (10) the military-focused technical, training, 6 maintenance, and logistical assistance provided by 7 the United States to Ukraine is as essential as the 8 military hardware provided to the country; 9 (11) all security assistance provided to Ukraine 10 should continue to be subject to rigorous vetting re- 11 quirements under section 620M of the Foreign As- 12 sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d) and security 13 cooperation under section 362 of title 10, United 14 States Code, including assistance provided to units 15 in the National Guard of Ukraine as well as all units 16 falling under the authority of the Ministry of De- 17 fense; 18 (12) the Office of Defense Cooperation at the 19 United States Embassy in Ukraine should be fully 20 staffed with officers who serve three-year terms in 21 order to administer the security assistance being 22 provided to the country; 23 (13) the Secretary of Defense should conduct 24 an assessment of the staffing resources of the Office 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:29 Apr 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S814.RS S814 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 12 •S 814 RS of Defense Cooperation and strongly consider pro- 1 viding additional staff to the Office of Defense Co- 2 operation in Ukraine; 3 (14) the enduring partnership between the 4 United States and Ukraine, including bipartisan 5 support for a sovereign, democratic, and whole 6 Ukraine through political, monetary, and military [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]