The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have asked House Speaker John Boehner to invite Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to speak before a joint session of Congress regarding his country’s violent conflict with pro-Russian forces.
Committee chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and ranking member Bob Corker, R-Tenn., in a joint letter Monday to Boehner, R-Ohio, said it was “critically important” for Congress to hear from Poroshenko “at this defining moment for not only Ukraine, but for Russia and the post-Cold War international order.
“Earlier this year, the Ukrainian people surprised the world when they came together and stood their ground in Maidan Square in the face of violence and tyranny, in order to defend their beliefs and the very sovereignty of their nation against corrupt leaders who had abandoned the will of the people and the interests of their nation,” the senators wrote.
“Today, with a newly elected democratic government in office, and having chosen for themselves the direction of their nation, Ukraine faces a renewed battle for its economic and political sovereignty.”
Menendez and Corker also called out Russian President Vladimir Putin to do more to stop the fighting between Ukraine and pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia, under his leadership, they said, “is challenging the very foundations of the security architecture that has supported peace and stability on the European continent since the end of the Cold War.”
“President Poroshenko is on the front line of this conflict to determine the fate of Ukraine and the future of the international order,” the senators said.
Poroshenko is scheduled to meet with President Obama at the White House on Sept. 18 to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine.
