Whereas Ukraine joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Partnership for Peace Program in 1994, and has been a longstanding NATO-aspirant country; Whereas at the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit, member nations’ heads of state and government issued a communique stating, NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. Both nations have made valuable contribution to Alliance operations. ; Whereas Ukraine and the European Union have entered into an Association Agreement, which pro-Russian, corrupt Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych refused to conclude in 2013; Whereas, in 2014, the Ukrainian people bravely rose up in the Revolution of Dignity, leading to the ouster of President Yanukovych; Whereas, as a result, Russian Forces illegally invaded, occupied, and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2014, as well as led and supported illegal military, paramilitary, and other separatist activity in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of eastern Ukraine since April 2014; Whereas the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine has led to the deaths of more than 13,000 people and the internal displacement of more than 1,400,000; Whereas Russian-controlled separatists continue to violate ceasefire agreements, including through bringing heavy weaponry near civilian populations and the line of contact; Whereas Russian-controlled separatists have been targeting civilian basic needs facilities such as water filtration systems, heat and electricity facilities, powerlines, and other critical services; Whereas, on July 17, 2014, Russian-backed separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragically killing 298 innocents; Whereas Russia has a deeply concerning human rights record in Russian-occupied Crimea and territories in eastern Ukraine, including persecution of religious minorities such as the Crimean Tatars, and arbitrary arrests and disappearances of journalists and civil society activists