Washington, D.C. – On July 2, 22 years ago, I immigrated to the United States after spending almost 22 years in Ukraine (13 of them under control of the Soviet Union). I was young, idealistic and inspired by the ideas of freedom. These ideas of freedom or more like erosion of freedoms has led me to become involved with politics. When I became a Congresswoman, I intentionally decided not to get involved with any international issues, including Ukraine, since I believed we had too many domestic issues shaking up our country from within. We still do, but when a major war in Ukraine broke out, I understood that I could be of significant value to my colleagues and our country. As someone who learns everything from the ground, I spent some time around Europe including a number of visits to Ukraine. Therefore, my understanding of the situation in Ukraine is not from books and theories or surveillance reports and analytics, but from seeing and hearing what’s actually happening with my own eyes. I will not go into many problems at this time and there are a plenty of them, but will just list three urgent action items needed to get the situation under control: 1) President Biden has to stop playing politics, have a clear strategy and align security assistance with our strategy; 2) President Zelensky has to stop playing politics and theater, and start governing to better support his military and local governments; and 3) Congress has to establish proper oversight of critical infrastructure and delivery of weapons and aid. ### | 