Amidst Washington's delays in making critical decisions to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, the Ukrainian community in Colorado, particularly the Colorado Ukrainian PAC and Ukrainians of Colorado organizations, addressed an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress.
In the letter, diaspora representatives express deep outrage over delays in providing military aid, insufficient sanctions against Russia, and a lack of determination to defend international law. They call on US lawmakers to pass a sanctions bill before Congress's August recess, reminding them of the United States' commitment to protecting Ukraine's sovereignty and the significant successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which were achieved thanks to international assistance.
Vilni Media publishes the full text of the appeal without changes.
We, the Ukrainian Community of Colorado and its supporters, appeal to you, our elected representatives in Congress, to do the right thing and support Ukraine. Some of you were already in office when, on February 24, 2022, unprovoked and warned of the consequences, Russia invaded Ukraine.
That was more than one thousand two hundred days ago. Since then, Russia has bombed and terrorized the civilian population of Ukraine, kidnapping children, raping women, destroying hospitals and schools, subjecting Ukrainian defenders to torture. This goes on, every day and every night, and is happening at the very moment you read these words.
Those of you in office since those early months and years of this war know these facts from the briefings you have received from our country’s military and intelligence services. Two among you have even traveled to Ukraine to see firsthand what Russia has done.
There is no doubt that Putin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign state whose sovereignty the United States had pledged to safeguard.
Ukraine has fought back valiantly, supported by the United States and dozens of the world’s free and independent states. Ukraine has liberated territory half the size of Colorado, invented new technology that dispatched Russian warships to the bottom of the Black Sea, and sent drones thousands of miles deep inside Russia to destroy a large amount of Russia’s bombers. It has fought with courage, audacity and inventiveness.
It has fought with courage, audacity and inventiveness.
More than a million Russian soliders, many of them convicted criminals recruited from Russia’s prison population by Putin’s henchmen, have been either killed or wounded by Ukrainian defenders.
Still, the Russian dictatorship, backed by communist China and by theocratic Iran, and by the police state of North Korea, continues to refuse to stop its war of aggression.
How do you imagine that Russia has been able to continue this barbarity?
The answer is simple: when the United States had the opportunity to move quickly, it chose to move slowly. When the US pledged support, it put conditions on when and how a weapon could be used. When it applied sanctions, it acted so selectively that Putin was able to find work-arounds. American computer chips still find their way into missiles that Putin fires at Kyiv. Secondary sanctions that could put the pressure on China for its “no limits” support of Russia have never been implemented.
Санкції другого рівня, які могли б чинити тиск на Китай за його «безмежну» підтримку росії, досі не запроваджено.
Billions of dollars in Russian state assets, frozen in US and European banks since the start of the war sit and collect interest when they could be expropriated and given to Ukraine. “It would be pure poetry to fund the Ukrainian war effort with Russian assets,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told the NY Post a year and a half ago. “As you can imagine, that idea has been met with great enthusiasm on the Republican side. I suspect it will be with our colleagues on the other side as well. It’s an eminently responsible thing for us to do.”
Why then hasn’t it been done? A lack of political will.
Military and intelligence support is also wavering — for no reason. The US Administration demanded that Ukraine agree to a ceasefire before lifting a freeze on support for Ukraine. Ukraine promptly agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, but Russia never did. No penalties for Russia.
The US recently redirected 20,000 anti-drone missiles, intended for Ukraine, to US forces in the Middle East. Putin responded by immediately increasing drone strikes against Ukrainian cities.
Putin thinks he has a friend in the White House and cheers every time American politicians attack one another. Xi thinks he can have China supply billions in military supplies to Russia in exchange for Russian oil. They think America is weak and tired and losing focus and interest.
Show them they are wrong.
Right now, more than 80 US Senators have signed on to the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 (S. 1241). A similar bill in the US House of Representatives has 59 cosponsors and many more who say they will vote for it. This legislation would finally impose the costs on Russia that should have been imposed 1,200 days ago. These bills need to be passed and signed into law before you go on vacation in August.
This is not a playground fight. "We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park," Zelensky said recently. "He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids.”
So we ask you, our elected representatives in Congress, to take action to support Ukraine.
America is a powerful country that can still be a force for good in the world. For many of us, it was the example of America standing up to communists in the Kremlin that inspired us and our parents and grandparents to make America our home.
Now is the time to stand up and support Ukraine.
There is not a minute to lose.
Prepared by: Inna Mikhno