The Missouri House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution in support of Ukraine in defending its freedom and its territory against encroachment from Russia, according to Rep. Doug Clemens (D-St.Ann).
“Today was a beautiful thing for us on the floor of the Missouri house in that it was a truly bipartisan movement in support of people in crisis,” he said. “We have many veterans amongst us who spoke eloquently about the duty and responsibility of citizenship and defending one's nation. It was worth sitting in that room and listening to those words.”
After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Biden Administration called for sanctions against Russia but has stopped short of imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“We all will have to wait and see how deeply this war affects everyone's economy and hopefully we don't have any further loss of lives and we don't have to intervene militarily but as far as Missouri's direct impact, I'm sure we'll feel it and it will be unfortunate that we do,” Clemens told the St. Louis Record.
The state of Missouri is also divesting its pension funds from Russian investments.
“Our pension funds are huge so it was a minuscule percentage but anything that makes life more difficult for the Russian government is going to benefit the Ukrainians in general because it makes resources harder for the Russians to come by and justify an invasion when we're injuring their economy by doing it,” Clemens said.
Some $13 million of Missouri’s pension funds are invested in Russian securities within global emerging market investments, according to media reports.
“Our pensions are remarkably secure in the state of Missouri,” Clemens added. “This divestiture will not affect the profitability of our pension fund or stability at all. There was a meeting today with the state treasurer and our pension board to decide the details.”