But with funding in doubt, his grim trip to Capitol Hill yesterday (overnight AEDT) was far from the hero’s welcome he received last winter.
Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington came as President Joe Biden’s request for an additional $US110 billion ($168 billion) US aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs is at serious risk of collapse in Congress.
Republicans are insisting on linking it to strict US-Mexico border security changes that Democrats decry.
Flanked by Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Zelenskyy entered a private meeting with senators with a public bipartisan show of support and to some applause. But more than an hour later, few senators minds appeared changed.
Schumer called it a “very powerful” meeting, but gave no update on stalled negotiations.
“It is maddening,” said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of Biden, ahead of the session.
“A very bad message to the world, to the Ukrainian people,” he said.
The White House said the time was right for Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington as Biden pushes lawmakers approve the aid package before the year-end holidays. A top spokesman said the US can’t let Ukraine aid lapse, especially as the Israel-Hamas war has taken attention, and that the president was willing to make compromises with Republicans.
“This additional funding will absolutely help Ukraine claw back even more of their territory and kick the Russians right out of Ukraine,” said the White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on NBC.
However, prospects for a congressional deal on Ukraine funding seemed all but out of reach.
Zelenskyy impressed on the senators that Ukraine could win the war against Russia, telling them he was drafting men in their 30s and 40s in a show of strength for the battle. In his trademark olive drab, he stood before a portrait of George Washington, history hanging behind him.
But Republican senators exited the meeting unmoved from their position that border security policy be paired with the aid to Ukraine.
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Senator Markwayne Mullin said the emergency funding wouldn’t gain GOP support unless it includes “real, meaningful border reform”.
Zelenskyy was next scheduled to visit new House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and then Biden.
Biden has expressed a willingness to engage with the Republicans as migrant crossings have hit record highs along the US-Mexico border, but some in his own party oppose proposals for expedited deportations and strict asylum standards as a return to Trump-era hostility towards migrants.
With talks at a standstill, one chief Republican negotiator, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, said there was nothing Zelenskyy could say during his visit with the senators to sway the outcome.
“Hey, pay attention to us, but not your own country? No,” Lankford told reporters.
“We’ve got to be able to deal with all these things together.”
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s high-stakes meetings, the White House late on Monday pointed to newly declassified intelligence that shows Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on Russia in recent fighting along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis — including 13,000 casualties and over 220 combat vehicle losses. The Ukrainian holdout in the country’s partly-occupied east has been the centre of some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.
US intelligence officials have determined that the Russians think if they can achieve a military deadlock through the winter it will drain Western support for Ukraine and ultimately give Russia the advantage, despite the fact that Russians have sustained heavy losses and have been slowed by persistent shortages of trained personnel, munitions and equipment.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is clearly watching what happens in Congress — and we need Congress to act this month to support Ukraine in its time of need”.
Zelenskyy, who visited Washington just months ago in September when the aid package was first being considered, is making his third trip to the Capitol since the war broke out in February 2022.
