Zelensky visits Washington to lobby Congress for more Ukraine aid
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 12. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Capitol Hill on Tuesday to make a last-ditch plea for more U.S. military aid to support his country's defense against Russia's ongoing invasion.
Why it matters: Congressional Republicans have held up an aid package the Biden administration proposed for Kyiv. The White House has warned that previously allotted aid for Ukraine could run out by year's end without congressional action, as the country faces another tough winter of fighting.
Details: Zelensky is scheduled to meet with senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday morning.
- In the afternoon, he's expected to meet with President Biden and hold a press conference with him afterward.
Context: Ukraine's need for additional weapons, ammunition and fighting vehicles comes after its summer counteroffensive ended in a stalemate with Russian forces.
- In the coming winter months, Russia is expected to target civilian infrastructure, like energy facilities, to cause massive blackouts and force Ukrainian citizens to ration energy, as it did last winter.
- This year, Ukraine has additional air defense systems to combat Russian airstrikes, though it currently may not have enough ammunition for those systems to counter several large attacks.
- If Russia's strikes do pierce Ukraine's defenses and damage infrastructure, they will likely exacerbate the widespread humanitarian crisis Moscow's invasion has created in the country.
State of play: Zelensky's visit to Washington will unfold against a starkly different political backdrop than his trip last December, when there was robust bipartisan support for military aid.
- In recent months, support for continued U.S. aid has begun to wane, particularly among Republicans.
- Currently, almost half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe the U.S. is giving too much aid to Ukraine — a substantially higher number of people than earlier in the war, a Pew survey found.
The big picture: Congressional Republicans have opposed additional aid for Ukraine unless it's combined with funding for strict U.S.-Mexico border security changes that Democrats and the White House oppose.
- Johnson, who previously said he supported additional aid, also criticized the Biden administration for having a "lack of clear strategy" in Ukraine.
- Russian President Putin boasted in the Kremlin recently that he believes Ukraine is running out of weaponry. "They don't have anything, they have no future. But we do have a future," he said.
Go deeper ... Zelensky: Ukraine can't let world "forget about war here"
Editor's note: This story was updated with a new photo.
