TOLEDO, Ohio — Many Americans are asking how they can help the people of Ukraine right now and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) is providing answers.
The co-chair of the Ukrainian Caucus said people have been coming up to her asking how they can help.
"She [Ukraine] voted for her own independence and has been laboring to be free with continued Russian meddling in her country all these decades," she said.
Kaptur explained when you don't have boundaries that are respected, it becomes a free-for-all and makes it dangerous for everyone involved. More than 1.5 million people have made it out of Ukraine.
This is the largest wave of refugees in Europe since World War II.
Kaptur said one of the most important things we can do here in the United States is give moral support to those fleeing and the countries taking them in.
"We have much to give the world and our people want to," she said. "But we have to be very judicious in the way we do it and make sure that every penny counts in terms of where people donate their funds."
Kaptur recommends going to the Department of State's website to see which organizations are already working on the ground in Ukraine and donate directly to them. She also recommends saving the money in your pocket for recovery efforts.
Congress could act this week to approve $10 billion in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine.
"But we have to reach a point where the killing of innocent people - babies, mothers, people who are older and you see fleeing - [stops]," Kaptur said. "It's so brutal. It's so bestial. The free world just can't stand and do nothing."
She said the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the battle for liberty versus tyranny in the modern world, and Ukraine has been fighting for liberty and freedom for far too long.
The congresswoman explained in the end there will be a negotiated settlement between the government of Russia and the government of Ukraine.
"They have no right to cross the sovereign territory, the boundary of a free nation," Kaptur said. "And they have done that with Ukraine. And that violates the principal of sovereignty, which is the number one rule - national sovereignty - of a stable world."