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Indiana GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Ukraine native, delivered a passionate appeal Tuesday before President Biden’s State of the Union address, saying the world needs him to stop the “genocide” of the Ukrainian people and if Biden doesn’t step up, the “blood of many millions of Ukrainians will be on his hands, too.”
Spartz, who fled Soviet-controlled Ukraine at the age of 21, talked of friends and family still in Ukraine, including her 95-year-old grandma, who are experiencing Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s forces bomb “civilians nonstop day and night,” murder innocent women and children with machine guns and level cities to the ground, she said.
“This is not a war,” a tearful Spartz, 43, said at a House Republican news conference Tuesday. “This is a genocide of the Ukrainian people by a crazy man who cannot get over that Ukrainian people do not want socialism, the Soviet Union [or] communism. They want to be with the United States of America. They want to be free people.”
VICTORIA SPARTZ, RAISED IN SOVIET COUNTRY, SAYS IT’S ‘CRAZY’ FOR AMERICANS TO WANT SOCIALISM HERE
Ukrainians want to fight back, but they need guns, not sticks, she said in urging Biden to provide more aid. She said Biden’s sanctions against Russia are too little and too late. Without greater action, Putin won’t stop his invasion in Ukraine, and the United States will ultimately have to join in the fight with military troops, she said.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., who emigrated from Ukraine, speaks about the war in Ukraine during a Republican news conference ahead of the State of the Union, Tuesday, March. 1, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“I think we have an obligation and duty to save this world, help Ukrainian people to survive,” Spartz said. “And this president needs to get this his act together and exercise some leadership. What’s happening under his watch is an atrocity.”
She added: “He must act decisively, fast, or the blood of many millions of Ukrainians will be on his hands, too.”
She said Putin struck when the United States is weak and Biden needs to step up and show strength.
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“He knew that we got embarrassed in Afghanistan. He wants to embarrass us again,” Spartz said of Biden.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., left, and Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., right, hold hands with Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., center, after the Indiana Representative, who emigrated from Ukraine, spoke about the war in Ukraine during a Republican news conference ahead of the State of the Union, Tuesday, March. 1, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“I, as a member of Congress, cannot let him embarrass our country. We’re the greatest country in the world. We are the strongest people in the world. We cannot let him embarrass us, or we will be a laughingstock for the rest of the world.”
RUSSIA/UKRAINE WAR LIVE UPDATES
Spartz grew up in Soviet-controlled Ukraine and saw the “misery” that occurs when socialism fails. She left Ukraine for America for the promise of love and new opportunities.
While earning her bachelor’s degree and MBA in Ukraine at the National University of Economics, she met Indiana native Jason Spartz on a train in Europe, and they started dating. He’s the son of a military veteran and a German-born mother. He proposed marriage, and Spartz came to the United States with one suitcase (that was lost during a layover in New York) and started her American dream.
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In Indiana, she furthered her education, became a CPA and taught at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Spartz started her own businesses, including financial consulting and farming and real estate investments.
She was served in the Indiana state Senate before getting elected to Congress in 2020 in a district that includes the north side of Indianapolis and its suburbs.
