Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington to ask for billions of dollars in increased aid to Ukraine, but Americans show growing fatigue with the war, The American Conservative reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Washington on Monday, his third trip to the United States since the war in Ukraine broke out.
He met with President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson and later addressed a closed-door Senate hearing to secure an increase in US aid to Ukraine.
With the help of Zelensky, Biden planned to obtain an additional four-part package worth $100 billion. Perhaps, many lawmakers in the United States would pay more heed to the president of the war-torn country than to their own. Most of the additional funding (about $60 billion) would have gone to aid Ukraine, with the rest split between Israel, the Indo-Pacific and the southern border of the US.
Zelensky was supposed to make an emotional appeal to the Senate via video link for more funding last Tuesday, but cancelled at the last minute.
However, the bipartisan bailout failed, as did the Democrats’ subsequent $111 billion supplemental aid, which would have provided Ukraine with $65 billion. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York changed his vote at the final moment to be able to reintroduce the supplemental later.
Upon his arrival in Washington, Zelensky started at the National Defence University on Monday. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced the Ukrainian president, reiterating that “Ukraine matters profoundly to America’s security and to the trajectory of global security in the 21st century.”
“We are determined to show the world that America will not flinch in our defence of freedom.”
Zelensky met separately with members of the House and Senate on Tuesday morning. He urged senators to include more advanced weaponry, such as Patriot missile systems, in a future aid bill for Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, anticipating criticism that members of his government regularly embezzle US funds, also sought to reassure the Senate that the money allocated would not be misappropriated or wasted.
According to Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, Zelensky told the Senate that Ukraine’s victory also meant the return of Crimea.
Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, suggested that Zelensky would rather have no nation at all than have part of its former territory.
[Zelensky will] fight until the last person.
Senator Mike Lee stated that Zelensky had addressed them so many times that he was “starting to feel like the 101st senator.”
On the House side, Johnson reportedly told Zelensky that while he sympathised with Ukraine’s position, both the Biden administration and the Schumer-led Senate tried to force an inoperable bill on the Senate. Moreover, Johnson added that the Biden administration has not provided any detailed strategy on Ukraine.
“What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars, and no appropriate oversight and no clear strategy to win and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed.”
After meeting with Biden at the White House, Zelensky asserted:
Ukraine can win.
Biden announced that his administration has approved another $200 million in aid for Ukraine, using the president’s spending cut authority. However, this action contradicts his administration’s remarks last week.
On December 4, Office of Management and Budget Director, Shalanda Young, wrote a letter to Congress.
“There is no magical pot of funding available to meet this moment. We are out of money—and nearly out of time.”
It remains unclear why Congress considers the problem on the southern border with Mexico more critical than the possible defeat of Ukraine in the war, in which the US, already allocating huge resources from its own stockpiles and budget, has a huge interest.
