I've seen Ukrainian suffering up close and we must continue to send critical lethal and nonlethal aid

Vladimir Putin’s demented fantasies and lust for conquest are responsible for thousands of innocent deaths and the displacement of over 10 million Ukrainians.

The congressional delegation had the opportunity to visit the Serit border crossing between Romania & Ukraine. (Courtesy Rep. Pat Fallon) Congressman Fallon meets with 82nd Airborne troops stationed in Poland. These troops, specifically, were from Texas. (Courtesy Rep. Pat Fallon) The members had the opportunity to meet with Ukrainian refugees at the Przemysl Train Station in Poland. (Courtesy Rep. Pat Fallon) The members met with the Romanian Prime Minister & Minister of Internal Affairs to discuss the ongoing refugee crisis. (Courtesy Rep. Pat Fallon) Tetiana Oleksiienko cries standing at the gate of her house in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine, heavily affected by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Several buildings in the village were reduced to mounds of bricks and corrugated metal and residents struggle without heat, electricity or cooking gas.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) ( ) An emergency worker holds a rescued cat in Borodyanka, Ukraine, Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022. Ukrainian authorities are poring over the grisly aftermath of alleged Russian atrocities around Kyiv, as both sides prepare for an all-out push by Moscow's forces to seize Ukraine’s industrial east. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)  ( ) Families wait to board a train at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region, on Wednesday. ( ) A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)

What we saw then was an economic and political system that was so weak, they relied on the barrel of a gun and barbed wire to subjugate rather than govern. It became abundantly clear to me that a "superpower" that must erect walls to keep their people from fleeing is neither super, nor does it possess any real power.