Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive on Capitol Hill to a darker mood than when he visited last winter for a hero’s welcome, as the Russian invasion is grinding into a third year and U.S. funding hangs in balance.
Zelenskyy’s visit Tuesday comes as President Joe Biden’s request for an additional $110 billion US aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs is at serious risk of collapse in Congress. Republicans are insisting on strict U.S.-Mexico border security changes that Democrats decry as draconian in exchange for the overseas aid.
“It is maddening,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who is a close ally of Biden. “A very bad message to the world, to the Ukrainian people.”
Zelenskyy will meet privately with senators and new Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, then talk with Biden at the White House as the once robust bipartisan support for Ukraine was slipping further out of reach.
U.S. 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.
“It is more critical now than ever that we maintain our support for Ukraine so they can continue to hold the line and regain their territory,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. She added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is clearly watching what happens in Congress.”
Republicans, fuelled by Johnson’s far-right flank in the House, have taken on an increasingly isolationist stance in U.S. foreign policy, demanding changes to American border and immigration policies in exchange for any funds to battle Putin’s war in Ukraine.
One chief Republican negotiator, Sen. 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.
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One year makes a difference
Zelenskyy, who received thunderous applause in Congress last December, is making his third trip to the Capitol since the war broke out in February 2022.
But 2023 brought a new power centre of hard-right Republicans, many aligned with Donald Trump, the former president who is now the GOP front-runner in the 2024 race for the White House.
A fight over border security measures has left more aid to Ukraine hanging in the balance. Andrew Chang explains what’s behind this Senate deadlock and what it could mean for Ukraine’s future.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House’s foreign affair committee, said Zelenskyy has an opportunity to impress on Johnson in their private talk “the moral clarity and why is Ukraine important.”
He said Zelenskyy could shake up the stalemate in Congress by reminding Johnson and the senators, “If we abandon our NATO allies and Ukraine, like we did in Afghanistan, we’re just going to invite more aggression and embolden and empower our adversaries.”
Of the new $110 billion national security package, $61.4 billion would go toward Ukraine — with about half, some $30 billion, going to the Defence Department to replenish weaponry it is supplying to Ukraine, and the other half for humanitarian assistance and to help the Ukrainian government function with emergency responders, public works and other operations.
The U.S. has already provided Ukraine $111 billion for its fight against Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Orban viewed as an obstacle in Europe
According to Kiel Institute, a think-thank based in Germany, European countries have pledged economic and military assistance worth $275 billion US through Oct. 31, but there are headwinds on the continent as well.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Putin, is demanding ahead of a EU summit later this week that Ukraine’s membership in the EU and billions of euros in funding meant for the war-torn country be taken off the agenda.
As well, according to a report, Orban was set to communicate with a group of U.S. Republicans opposed to further Ukraine aid.
Meanwhile, Poland’s newly elected prime minister, Donald Tusk, vowed Tuesday that his government will be a stable ally of the United States and NATO and that it would work to mobilize the Western world to keep helping Ukraine.
In a wide-ranging inaugural speech to parliament on Tuesday, Tusk said Poland can’t afford divisions at a time when Russia is waging a war of aggression across its border in Ukraine.
“Poland’s task, the new government’s task, but also the task of all of us, is to loudly and firmly demand the full determination from the entire Western community to help Ukraine in this war,” Tusk said in a ceremonious address attended by Ukraine’s ambassador and former Polish presidents, including the anti-communist freedom fighter Lech Walesa. “I will do this from day one.”
In addition to military aid, Poland has taken in tens of thousands of Ukraine refugees since Russia invaded nearly two years ago.
