Ukraine’s war-time leader Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to salvage Ukraine aid talks ahead of the winter holiday recess.
He faced an uphill climb. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Tuesday afternoon that a deal before Christmas was “practically impossible,” though he said he remained committed to Kyiv’s fight.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), after meeting with Zelensky in the morning, reiterated that any aid for Kyiv must be coupled with border security.
President Biden sought to reassure the Ukrainian leader at the start of their meeting at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t want you giving up hope,” Biden told Zelensky. “We’re going to stay at your side.”
Biden has requested about $60 billion in additional Ukraine support as part of a more than $100 billion supplemental spending package that has hit multiple hurdles in Congress.
Zelensky and Biden held a joint press conference around 5 p.m. for about a half-hour.
Biden and Zelensky’s joint press conference was a show of solidary between the two leaders, while they lobby Republicans to pass more aid to Ukraine.
Biden warned against the U.S. not further supporting Ukraine, highlighting that it would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he suggested that only a small group of Republicans are in opposition. The president also said he is hopeful but not promising there will be more aid.
Additionally, Biden touted the successes of the Ukrainian military pushing back the Russian military, the courage of the Ukrainians, and how proud he is that NATO is unified.
Zelensky, when asked if he is hoping for a direct invitation to join the NATO alliance, said Ukraine is “allies but we are not members, members of NATO” and punted the question to Biden. Biden said there is “no question” that NATO will be in Ukraine’s future.
Additonally, Zelensky expressed his gratitude for Biden’s support and called his meetings on Capitol Hill, in the Senate and with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), “very productive.”
– Alex Gangitano
Zelensky bristled at the suggestion that Ukraine might cede some of its territory to Russia if it meant bringing an end to the war during Tuesday’s press conference.
“That’s insane, to be honest,” Zelensky said through an interpreter.
“That’s part of Ukrainian society. We are talking about human beings. They are being tortured, they are being raped, and they are being killed,” he continued.
“That’s not a matter of territory. That’s a matter of life, of families, of children, of their histories,” Zelensky continued. “I don’t know whose idea it is, but I have a question to these people, if they are ready to give up their children to territories. I think no.”
— Brett Samuels
Biden said he believes there is “strong bipartisan political support” for Ukraine, downplaying the number of Republicans who have opposed more funding for the Ukrainian war effort.
The president said there are a “small number of Republicans who don’t want to support Ukraine, but they don’t speak for the majority of even Republicans in my view.”
“We’re in negotiations to get funding we need,” he added. “Not making promises but hopeful we can get there. I think we can.”
— Brett Samuels
Biden in his opening remarks warned a failure by the United States to stand with Ukraine would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and cause greater global harm.
“Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” Biden said. “We must, we must, we must prove him wrong.”
Biden called it “stunning” that it has gotten to the eleventh hour for Congress to pass additional Ukraine aid, and he warned history would “remember harshly” those who oppose funding for the Ukrainian war effort.
“If we don’t stop Putin it will endanger the freedom of everyone almost everywhere. Putin will keep going,” Biden said.
“Ukraine’s success and it’s ability to deter aggression in the future are vital to security for the world at large,” he added.
— Brett Samuels
National security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will head to the Middle East this week to meet with Israeli officials amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas, Biden said.
Sullivan will meet with members of the Israeli wartime Cabinet to emphasize the administration’s commitment to Israel, as well as the need to protect civilian life, Biden said.
Austin will also stress the need to ensure the free flow of commerce while in the region.
“The entire world is watching what we do so let’s show them who we are,” Biden said.
— Brett Samuels
Russia has lost more than 13,000 soldiers in Ukraine since beginning an October offensive push in the eastern region of the country, according to declassified U.S. intelligence.
Russian forces have also lost 220 combat vehicles in addition to the more than 13,000 soldiers on the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, the White House National Security Council said in the declassified assessment Tuesday.
In military terminology, a loss refers to fighters killed, missing or too wounded to return to the battlefield.
— Brad Dress
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters Tuesday that it will be “practically impossible” to pass legislation providing more military aid to Ukraine before Christmas and urged President Biden to get more involved in the stalled negotiations.
“All I have said is [it’s] practically impossible, even though we reach an agreement, to craft it, get it through the Senate, get it through the House before Christmas,” McConnell said. “Doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
Read the full story here.
— Alex Bolton
Biden told Zelensky that he shouldn’t give up hope about the U.S support for Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
“I don’t want you giving up hope,” Biden told Zelensky at the top of their meeting in the Oval Office. “We’re going to stay at your side.”
The president also used the meeting to call on Congress to provide more aid to Ukraine and warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was planning to bombard Ukraine’s electrical grid this winter.
“We mustn’t let him succeed,” he said. Zelensky responded that “Ukraine can win” and thanked the U.S. and allies for support.
– Alex Gangitano
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House from Capitol Hill where he is scheduled to meet with President Biden.
Republican voters have been slowly souring on support for Ukraine nearly two years into its war against Russia.
While most GOP lawmakers say they still support Ukraine, the path for additional funding has become mired in border politics.
The Hill explored the shift in Republican sentiment as part of its “World at War” series last month.
“Biden is seen as incompetent and corrupt. So unfortunately, the way politics works, it’s guilt by association,” James Cohen, a longtime Republican voter from Virginia Beach, told The Hill.
“Where they stand on funding, whether it’s Ukraine or anything else, it’s very polarized.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he adamantly supports a deal to send additional aid to Ukraine, but only if Democrats can agree on border security measures.
Negotiations have slowed in recent days, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Tuesday with McConnell and other senators to advocate for his country to get continued aid.
“I’ve been a staunch supporter of Ukraine’s fight to take back its land, liberate its people and restore its support, restore its sovereignty since the beginning of Russia’s invasion way back in 2014,” McConnell said in a floor speech. “Our Ukrainian friends’ cause is just, and if the West continues to stand with them, they can win.”
But McConnell said that staunch support requires action on other fronts as well.
“We know the threats we face are intertwined — that Russia and China and North Korea work together to undermine America and the West. We know that our border, just like Ukraine’s borders and Israel’s and Taiwan’s, must be inviolable,” he continued. “That’s why, for months now, we’ve supported supplemental action on all four of the most pressing national security challenges we face.”
“My support for Ukraine and Israel is rock solid,” he added. “I’m committed to preparing the US military to deter and defend against Chinese aggression. I’m determined to get the national security crisis at the southern border under control, and I’m going to work to get it done as long as it takes.”
– Nick Robertson
The head of the House Democratic Caucus took a swipe at Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday over the Republicans’ decision not to stage a meeting between the full House and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his Capitol visit.
“We just thank him for coming out, and [having] the courage to come here. Unfortunately, House Republicans didn’t extend that offer to meet like the Senate did — to meet with all members,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.) told reporters during a press briefing in the Capitol.
“It would have been nice if Speaker Johnson conveyed that, but he didn’t.”
Read full story here.
— Mike Lillis
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reiterated after his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday that any aid for Kyiv must be coupled with border security.
The statement comes even as a bipartisan group in the Senate has struggled to come to a consensus on border security, a reality that is preventing the U.S. from sending aid to Ukraine despite pleas from Zelensky and the White House.
Johnson also called on the White House to provide a “strategy to allow Ukraine to win” the war against Russia. He said the administration’s answers thus far “have been insufficient” and lack “clarity and detail.”
“So I’ve made this very clear, again, from the very beginning, when I was handed the gavel, we needed clarity on what we’re doing in Ukraine and how we’ll have proper oversight of the spending of precious taxpayer dollars of the American citizens, and we needed a transformative change at the border,” Johnson told reporters following his meeting with Zelensky.
He noted that the House earlier this year passed H.R. 2, the GOP conference’s marquee border bill that is a non-starter for Democrats.
“These are our conditions because these are the conditions of the American people,” Johnson said of border security. “And we are resolute on that. It is not the House’s issue right now, the issue is with the White Huse and the Senate, and I implore them to do their job because the time is urgent and we do want to do the right thing.”
Johnson, however, said he told Zelensky that the U.S. stands with Kyiv in its battle against Moscow.
“Just had a good meeting with President Zelensky, I reiterated to him that we stand with him and against Putin’s brutal invasion. The American people stand for freedom, and they’re on the right side of this fight.”
— Mychael Schnell
A top Ukrainian official held out hope for a U.S. aid deal for the country, noting that it would not be a “tragedy” if negotiations in the Senate passed after Christmas.
“If it happens so that we receive a gift before Christmas, we will be happy with that,” war cabinet official Oleksiy Danilov told BBC News. “But if it will happen a bit later, then it shouldn’t be made into a tragedy.”
While some members have said that a pre-holiday deal is still possible, there is increasing doubt that Democrats and Republicans can agree on border security policy, which Republicans demand be passed before Ukraine aid is considered.
He declined to ponder the fate of Ukraine if American aid for the country stops.
“Will Putin destroy us before humanity’s eyes? Will he be killing our children, our women, our elderly men? And will the whole world watch with their eyes closed?” he said. “Then the question should be, in what world do we live?”
– Nick Robertson
Zelensky is slated to appear on Fox News during its 6 p.m. hour on “Special Report” with anchor Bret Baier.
The scheduled interview comes as Zelensky is in Washington, D.C., lobbying lawmakers to send more funding to Ukraine and just weeks after the president met with Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp., during a recent trip to Europe.
