Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the case for new U.S. aid to help his country fight a Russian invasion in talks Tuesday with members of Congress ahead of talks with President Joe Biden in Washington.
Zelenskyy said he would use the meetings to “talk about what results we can achieve next year based on our achievements this year.”
The talks come as the U.S. is expected to announce another $200 million in military aid for Ukraine, a U.S. official tells VOA.
Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs to “win the sky,” as he advocated for missiles, drones and jets to expand the Ukrainian military’s air defenses.
“It’s crucial that politicians don’t even try to betray the soldiers because, just like weapons are needed for their defense, freedom always requires unity,” Zelenskyy said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden would get an update from Zelenskyy on the battlefield situation in Ukraine and “make it very clear to President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people that we’re going to continue to support them, particularly at this very difficult time.”
Kirby said he expects Biden to make clear his case “for why additional funding for Ukraine and Israel are vital to our own national security interests at this time.”
Biden has asked Congress for a $110 billion package of wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel, along with other national security priorities. Ukraine would get more than $61 billion of the money.
But Republicans in the U.S. Senate have balked at the legislation, saying major U.S. border security changes are needed.
Some Republicans are asking for the immediate deportation of migrants who entered the country illegally, stripping them of a chance to seek U.S. asylum.
They have also called for greatly scaling back Biden administration programs that have allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. lawfully.
The U.S. has already provided Ukraine $111 billion for its fight against Russia's 2022 invasion.
In his speech Monday, Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of defeating Russia in Ukraine because if Russia wins in Ukraine, he said, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop there.
“His [Putin’s] weapon against you right now is propaganda and disinformation. But if he sees a chance, he'll go further,” he said. “Now, he's shifting Russia's economy and society [onto] what he calls ‘war tracks.’"
The Ukrainian president said that, so far, Ukrainian forces have taken back 50% of the territory they lost to Russia and pointed to the perseverance of Ukrainian “warriors” on the battleground.
“Right now, amid fierce battles, our soldiers are holding positions on the front and preparing for further actions, and we haven't let Russia score any victory this year,” Zelenskyy said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also spoke at the National Defense University event, saying U.S. support in Ukraine is unshakeable.
"If we do not stand up [to] the Kremlin's aggression today, if we do not deter other would-be aggressors, we will only invite more aggression, more bloodshed and more chaos,” Austin said.
IMF funding
The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Monday approved a $900 million disbursement for Ukraine as part of an ongoing, long-term loan.
"Thank you for supporting Ukraine and celebrating the successes of our country and our people," Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel after his meeting with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva Monday in Washington.
Georgieva said Ukraine's economy had proven resilient despite Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
"Looking ahead, whereas the recovery is expected to continue, the outlook has significant risks stemming mainly from the exceptionally high war-related uncertainty," Georgieva said in a statement, according to Reuters. "It is also critical that external financing on concessional terms continue on a timely and predictable basis."
The IMF on Monday asked Ukraine to conduct an "ambitious" external commercial debt restructuring in the first half of 2024 to help restore debt sustainability.
Russian submarines
In a televised ceremony Monday, Putin inspected two nuclear submarines — the Krasnoyarsk and Emperor Alexander III — at the Sevmash shipbuilding yard in the arctic port of Severodvinsk.
The Emperor Alexander III is part of Russia's new Borei [Arctic Wind] class of nuclear submarines, the first new generation Russia has launched since the Cold War.
Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry said the vessel had successfully tested a nuclear-capable Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile.
Security analysts say nuclear arms have assumed a greater importance in Putin’s thinking and rhetoric since the start of the Ukraine conflict, where his conventional forces are locked in a grinding war of attrition with no end in sight.
VOA’s Carla Babb contributed to this report. Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
