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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for the second time in three months, as Ukraine heads into an uneasy winter, low on weaponry and cash — and without any sign that the U.S. assistance Ukraine says it badly needs to hold off the Russians is forthcoming.
Zelensky will meet first with senators, and then with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R), before heading later to the White House to meet with President Biden.
The mission, which comes just a week before lawmakers are expected to leave town for the holidays, is critical, said one of Zelensky’s senior aides: Ukraine’s military needs help now. “It’s a matter of life and death for Ukraine,” said the senior adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss conversations with senior American officials. “Time is of the essence: That’s the message.”
To date, Congress has allocated more than $111 billion to support Ukraine, but lawmakers have so far failed to heed Biden’s request earlier this fall for an additional $61 billion for the year ahead, part of a larger emergency spending request that would also provide security assistance to Israel, Taiwan and the U.S. border.
Public support for Ukraine has fallen steadily in recent months, and Republican lawmakers — particularly in the House of Representatives, where the party’s right flank has wielded outsize influence — have expressed a rapidly diminishing appetite for funding Ukraine’s war effort.
A growing number of Republicans in both chambers have said in recent weeks that they will not approve Ukraine aid unless it comes with a major tightening of U.S. immigration policy.
Zelensky was scheduled last week to virtually address a House and Senate briefing on Ukraine, but the Ukrainian leader canceled that appearance shortly before the briefing devolved into a shouting match over U.S. border policy. Several Republican lawmakers left partway through.
“My advice to the White House would be, the President made a commitment to Zelensky. To honor that commitment, they’re going to need to secure the border,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters Monday. “If I were the president, I would twist every Democrat arm and maybe some Republican arms, and say, ‘Get the job done.’”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), long one of the most vocal Republican supporters of Ukraine, has also joined his conference in demanding immigration changes to support the supplemental funding package.
“When it comes to keeping America safe, border security is not a sideshow,” McConnell said on Monday. “It’s ground zero. Senate Republicans have no more spare time to explain this basic reality.”
Biden signaled last week he would be willing to accept significant immigration restrictions to get a deal, but negotiations between the two parties have so far failed to produce one, and lawmakers have just a few more days to get it done before their holiday recess — a goal that one of the deal’s top negotiators said they would not meet.
Zelensky, meanwhile, on Monday warned an audience of U.S. and international military personnel gathered at the National Defense University in Washington that his nation’s chances at victory hang in the balance.
“When the free world hesitates,” Zelensky said, “that’s when dictators celebrate … If there’s anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it is just [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his sick clique.”
“It’s crucial that politics don’t even try to betray the soldier,” Zelensky added later in his speech. “Just like weapons are needed for their defense, freedom always requires unity.”
The Biden administration last week announced $175 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine, but it cautioned that without congressional approval, that would be some of the last aid it could provide.
Both the administration and Zelensky’s government have warned that Kyiv could lose its ability to pay government workers, including first responders, without further aid. One Ukrainian lawmaker said last week that U.S. support so far in the war have comprised roughly a third of the country’s budget.
Throughout his speech on Monday, Zelensky invoked the spread of democratic ideals and prosperity, and sought to position his country as a bulwark against Putin’s expansionist desires in Europe.
“You can count on Ukraine. And we hope just as much to be able to count on you,” he said.
Theodoric Meyer, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Tyler Pager contributed to this report.