Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the most important message Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered to lawmakers was that failure to deliver more U.S. assistance would condemn Ukraine to a Russian takeover.
“There was a single sentence that summed it all up, and I’m quoting him verbatim. Mr. Zelensky said ‘If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war.’ That’s a quote from him,” Schumer told reporters following a closed-door meeting with the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky was on Capitol Hill appealing for additional and sustained U.S. assistance to Ukraine as it has pushed back against Russian forces nearly 19 months since a full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.
The Ukrainian president, speaking to reporters after his meeting with lawmakers, said that he had a “very strong dialogue” with senators and updated them on the situation on the battlefield, Kyiv’s military plans and the importance of U.S. support.
When asked if he had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky simply responded, “I am not speaking to him.”
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve $24 billion in additional funding for Ukraine. While the majority of lawmakers support helping Ukraine survive under Russian assault, there is significant opposition among Republicans, with some lawmakers supporting military assistance but opposing financial aid and hard-line GOP members opposing all funds for Ukraine.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said that he would like to see the $24 billion supplemental request for Ukraine be brought to a vote as a stand-alone bill, as opposed to attaching it to additional government funding that Ukraine’s supporters feel would allow the assistance to more easily pass through the chaotic Congress.
In a signal of the vocal opposition among some GOP lawmakers, more than two dozen Republicans published a letter opposing U.S. assistance to Ukraine Thursday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) explained that she opposed a House procedural vote on Defense spending because it included security assistance for Ukraine. The procedural vote went down to defeat Thursday as Republicans battled one another.
Congress has appropriated an estimated $113 billion in funding for Ukraine as part of four supplemental packages. The Biden administration is expected to announce an additional aid package as Zelensky visits with President Biden at the White House.