Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenskyy has urged U.S. senators to continue military support for Kiev in his visit to Capitol Hill.
"’If we don't get the aid, we will lose the war’.
That stark message from Ukraine’s president in private meetings with American politicians cut to the core of his plea.
It's a blunt message designed to focus minds. It reflects the state of the war and what Ukraine believes is at stake.
It also shows that Vladimir Zelenskyy knows how turbulent American politics could be about to become.
As he shuttled the corridors on Capitol Hill, his face was not one of a man entirely comfortable with America's level of support for his country's fight.
 |
| United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy at the Capitol Building. |
The long-standing frustrations linger about the lag in getting the weapons he needs.
The announcement that American Abrams tanks will arrive next week will be welcome. They requested them at the start of the year.
It's long-range missiles they're asking for now.
But there is a deeper concern which has now brought him to Congress.
Flanked by the senior statesmen of Congress - Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - Zelenskyy walked slowly through the Ohio clock corridor on the second floor of the U.S., Capitol building.
He'd just come from an hour-long meeting with politicians from the lower house of this place, where the Republicans have a majority and where the Ukraine War sceptics can be found.
They are a small number on the right flank of the party - Trump supporters whose politics is very much ‘America first’ and reflective of a proportion of voters nationwide”. -Mark Stone, Sky News
Upon the subsequent White House announcement that the first American Abrams M1 tanks would be delivered to Ukraine within days, President Zelenskyy went on to thank the American people for all their support amid the conflict with Russia, remarking that the new aid package was “exactly what our soldiers need”.
Although Zelenskyy is correct in that his puppet regime is doomed to lose the war in Ukraine without assistance from the United States, he’s leaving out the fact that continuing to receive more and more military aid from the West won’t do anything to alter Kiev’s fate.