Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Washington DC on Thursday to lobby Congress for more aid and meet with President Joe Biden as cracks appear in support for his fight against Russia.
Zelensky will make stops on Capitol Hill, at the Pentagon and end his day at the White House as he tries to maintain a crucial funding line for the war effort.
His visit comes as a group of Republican lawmakers warned the White House that it is opposing Biden’s request for $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, and as Moscow launches its biggest missile attack in weeks on targets across his country. In addition, Poland announced that it will stop sending weapons to Ukraine.
Zelensky will start his day on Capitol Hill, where he will meet leaders of the House of Representatives and then senators in the Old Senate Chamber, a rare privilege for world leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is welcomed to the Capitol by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
But he faces a cooler reception in the Capitol on the House side. Zelensky requested another joint speech to Congress, as he did last December, Punchbowl News reported, but Chairman Kevin McCarthy denied the request.
Zelensky will meet with the speaker, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other committee chairs and ranking members on the first floor of the Capitol.
Members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and other lawmakers are expected to meet with him later Thursday morning at the National Archives.
Zelensky will make his plea for support now that Ukraine’s neighbor Poland has announced that it will no longer supply weapons to Kiev.
“We will no longer transfer weapons to Ukraine because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
Tensions between Warsaw and Kiev, sparked by Poland’s ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect farmers’ interests, have increased in recent days.
In the US, Zelensky will have to appeal to Republicans in the House of Representatives, who have made clear that they oppose more funding for Ukraine. McCarthy’s stopgap to keep the government running while lawmakers negotiate a full budget deal lacks any funding for Kiev.
And now 29 GOP lawmakers wrote to Biden’s budget chief to express concerns about how much has already been given to Ukraine – $100 billion – and to complain that the Biden administration is backing an “indefinite commitment” to the country.
They argue that Americans need more information about the war effort.
‘How is the counter-offensive going? Are the Ukrainians closer to victory than they were six months ago? What is our strategy and what is the president’s exit plan?’ they write.
McCarthy has made similar comments.
“I think a lot of people have the question: What is the strategy to win?” he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell does support funding Ukraine’s war effort, even though some conservatives in the Senate think the U.S. has done enough to help Kiev.
A framed flag, signed by Ukrainian fighters on the front lines in Bakhmut and presented to the US Congress in 2022, sits at one end of the table where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will meet privately with Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy and other leaders.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has questioned US funding for Ukraine
Zelensky will also meet with President Joe Biden, who returned to Washington on Wednesday evening after meetings at the UN
The Biden administration continues to push for more funding.
Zelensky’s visit comes at a “critical time as Russia reaches out” to countries including North Korea and Iran, White House spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.
Biden could gain a “battlefield perspective” when he meets Zelensky in the Oval Office, Kirby noted.
While Zelensky was out of the country, Russia stepped up its air campaign, damaging energy facilities and causing power outages in several regions.
Moscow targeted Lviv in the west, near the border with Poland, and Kharkiv, close to Ukraine’s eastern front lines, as well as Kiev, Cherkasy and Rivne.
Zelensky arrives in Washington after addressing the UN General Assembly as part of the body’s annual meeting.
He also addressed the UN Security Council, where he took a tough line, accusing it of inaction in the face of Russia’s invasion of his country.
“Most of the world recognizes the truth about this war,” Zelensky said.
“We must recognize that the UN is at an impasse on issues of aggression,” he noted.