Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in the U.S. Capitol Thursday alongside House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in the U.S. Capitol Thursday alongside House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington, D.C., Thursday morning to make a renewed pitch for American aid to support his country’s ongoing fight against Russia, as a new round of funding hangs in limbo ahead of a looming government shutdown.
Zelenskyy spent the morning on Capitol Hill, where he met with a small, bipartisan group of House leadership before moving to a private meeting with dozens of senators. By the afternoon, he had traveled to the Pentagon, where he met with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. Later in the day, he was scheduled to talk with President Biden in the Oval Office — the sixth meeting between the two leaders.
Zelenskyy’s arrival came hours after a wave of Russian missile attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine killed at least two and injured dozens. Ukrenergo, a grid operator in Ukraine, reported power outages in about 400 cities and towns.
On his Telegram account, Zelenskyy thanked first responders and nodded to anti-missile systems donated by countries such as the United States. “More air defense. More sanctions. More support for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines. Russian terror must lose,” he wrote.
Zelenskyy arrived at the Capitol wearing his trademark military green outfit, trading his usual t-shirt for a button-up.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (center) walks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., (left) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during his Capitol visit on Thursday.
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (center) walks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., (left) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during his Capitol visit on Thursday.
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New funding to Ukraine is tied up in the fight over a possible shutdown
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, no country has provided more funding to Ukraine than the United States. Total aid to Ukraine has topped $112 billion, with another round of funding currently tied up in Congress.
But appetite to send new funds to Ukraine, among congressional lawmakers and the public alike, has begun to falter as the war enters its 20th month. A much-anticipated counteroffensive that began in June is still well short of Ukraine’s stated goals, with just a month or two left before winter sets in.
Biden has asked Congress to approve $24 billion in new aid to Ukraine. The funding has no obvious path to passage in the near term due as Congress nears an end-of-the-month deadline to approve new spending or face a government shutdown.
Far-right House Republicans have shown little appetite in approving a bill, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership seat could be in danger.
Although Democrats are mostly unified behind the president in support for additional aid, more Republicans have started to voice their discontent.
On Thursday, a group of 28 Republican senators and representatives, led by Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, announced they would oppose Biden’s $24 billion request.
“The American people deserve to know where their money has gone to. How is the counteroffensive going? Are the Ukrainians any closer to victory than they were six months ago? What is our strategy, and what is the president’s exit plan?” they wrote in a letter addressed to the White House’s budget director. “It would be an absurd abdication of congressional responsibility to grant this request without knowing the answers to these questions.”
Despite the dissenters, the “majority of the majority” supports the additional funding, said Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, speaking to reporters Thursday after meeting with Zelenskyy.
Still, he added: “We can’t afford a war of attrition. We need a plan for victory, and we need to do it soon.”
Like Congress, the American public is split in support for additional aid. A CNN poll last month showed that 71% of Republicans oppose new funding while 62% of Democrats support it.
Zelenskyy’s visit comes the day after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, where he urged the council to oust Russia as a permanent member. “Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the U.N. when it comes to the sovereign borders of nations,” he said.
This story originally appeared on NPR
