“Whether it’s Russian or Ukrainian, the amount of bloodshed these places have endured … we simply can’t go back to the slaughter,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur says.
An armed serviceman stands near Russian army vehicles outside a Ukrainian border guard post in the Crimean town of Balaclava March 1, 2014.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
WASHINGTON — House Ukraine Caucus Co-Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur said Saturday that while she is concerned about the potential for bloodshed in Ukraine, she understood Russian military action.
On Saturday, Russia effectively invaded the ethnically diverse Crimean region of Ukraine. The Russian Parliament also granted Russian President Vladimir Putin the authority to use military action in the country.
"If I was President Putin, I would have worried with the collapse of the Party of Regions, about peace in the Crimea … I understand Russia's military posture. The United States has never been invaded the way Russia has," Kaptur said in an interview with BuzzFeed Saturday afternoon.
While other lawmakers like Sen. Chris Murphy see the invasion as the start of a broader effort to reassert Russia's Cold War influence over Eastern Europe, Kaptur — a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio and progressive champion — argues ethnic tensions in Crimea drove Putin to take drastic action.
"It was not unexpected. I view, and I'm sure the Russians do, [Crimea] as their rear flank … [and] we seem to be in between leaders right now," Kaptur said, explaining that the collapse of Ukraine's government last week has led to upheaval throughout the country, including Crimea, where the Party of Regions had maintained peace between Tartars, ethnic Russians, and other groups in Crimea. "The Party of Regions kept it civil … some group had to step in to mediate that, and at the moment it appears to be Russian troops," the Ohio Democrat said.
"I don't know what other choices there were … it's one of those situations where things got out of control quickly."
In an emailed follow-up comment, Kaptur emphasized a broad international response to instability in Ukraine, and on Russia's military intervention in Crimea.
"I did not mention that Russia does not control territorial waters of the Black Sea," she said in the email. "That means working with the government of Ukraine, official delegations of international diplomatic leaders could arrive through the Black Sea, engage in fair handed assessments of the current situation, and negotiate through the Ukrainian government deescalation of the current intervention crisis to protect Ukraine's integrity, recognize Russia's longstanding interests in its fleet's access, and move toward peaceful resolution of the Crimean situation to avoid bloodshed."
Russia has used the potential for ethnic violence as its official reason for invading Ukraine, although there appears to be no independent evidence that Tartars and ethnic Russians have engaged in any significant violence, and most U.S. officials view those claims as a thin pretense.
Kaptur's grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, where her great uncle was persecuted by Soviet authorities and imprisoned in a gulag for 20 years. Kaptur, who has regularly travelled to Ukraine since 1973, said she and other lawmakers have reached out to Russian officials urging them to find a quick and peaceful solution, and acknowledged that economic sanctions — including freezing Russian assets or those of export customers — may be necessary. "We have to keep these options open," Kaptur said.
But Kaptur said she hopes it does not come to that, and that the international community can find a way forward. "Where has the United Nations been" she questioned, adding that "the world community should rise to the occasion" and help protect Ukraine.
Kaptur said her overriding concern is avoiding another tragedy in Ukraine, which has seen repeated violent invasions and internal outbursts for more than a century.
"Whether it's Russian or Ukrainian, the amount of bloodshed these places have endured … we simply can't go back to the slaughter," Kaptur said.
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