Commissioner Spartz Travels With Bipartisan Delegation To Europe
From May 1st to May 7th, the Helsinki Commission visited Germany, Poland, and Ukraine to assess the current situation in Europe. The delegation met with high-ranking government officials and civil society actors regarding the ongoing military and humanitarian responses to the Russian invasion. Commissioner Victoria Spartz (IN-05) joined Chairman Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-TN) as well as Ambassador Michael Carpenter.
“The Helsinki Commission played an important role as an oversight body of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which hosted the signing of the Budapest memorandum of 1994 compelling Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., U.K. and Russia,” Spartz said. “As we can see now, the international organizations and security framework established after WWII have failed. We have to have a serious conversation on how to reform the global security framework and bring peace back to the European continent once again.”
“Friends of democracy are inspired by courageous Ukrainians capably supported by our appreciated allies of Germany and Poland in the global competition between democracies with rule of law opposing authoritarians with rule of gun.
“Ukraine must win this war against Russia’s brutal aggression — there is no alternative. Ukraine must be restored to its internationally recognized 1991 borders and integrated into NATO and other Euro-Atlantic institutions. The United States must work with its allies and partners to ensure that the leaders of the Russian Federation are held accountable.
“Despite promises after World War II of ‘never again,’ today, in 2023, Russia is committing the very crimes that the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg was created to address: the crime of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. As in Nuremberg, we must bring to justice the perpetrators of the genocide being carried out in Ukraine – including war criminal Putin himself,” said Chairman Wilson and Ranking Member Cohen.