Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Congress and President Biden on Tuesday, Dec. 12. While visiting, Zelenskyy brought a simple message: If the United States continues to provide aid to Ukraine, they will win, if the U.S. does not, Putin will win.
“He said, if we lose, you can count on occupation by the Russians, count on guerrilla warfare to resist them, and you can count on massive migration of people out of Ukraine into Europe and beyond,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters after the meeting.
Zelenskyy’s visit comes as a package for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and U.S. national security is stalled due to disagreements over U.S. immigration policy.
Republicans said without changes to strengthen U.S. asylum and immigration parole laws, they won’t provide the votes needed to get the package approved.
“It is not a time for one side to demand maximalist, fringe policies that they know are unrealistic and then say, ‘Our way or the highway,’” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “If Republican colleagues want an agreement on the border, they need to meet us in the middle.”
“The only thing that is really holding this up at this point is the unwillingness of the White House so far to acknowledge that they’re going to have to deal with the border component,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. “Once they begin to get serious about it, I think we can move this package along.”
It’s clear that Congress supports Ukraine and it is willing to provide more aid. Cornyn described it as a supermajority and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there wasn’t a single person in the meeting who talked against aid.
During the meeting with senators, Zelenskyy also addressed rumors and misconceptions about how U.S. money is being spent, including one false claim that the money had been spent on yachts.
Ukraine has implemented reforms that were suggested by the International Monetary Fund and European Union, and the United States has teams on the ground tracking the money and equipment provided.
“I believe that by and large the money is being well spent,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. “And if we fail to support Ukraine, we will spend a lot more and regret this moment in history when we walk out away from him.”
However, the border negotiations are taking so much time that it’s unclear whether the package will have to wait until 2024, when Congress returns from its holiday break. There are calls from both sides of the aisle to stay in session.
“We’ve got to move in real time,” Tillis said. “We can’t go, ‘Oh, where’s the time, let’s go through Christmas, the holidays and the new year and then get back to it.’ That is not the way you address a chronic problem. And let’s just say even if you don’t have a priority of Ukraine and Israel — really? You want 11,000 more crossings a day to occur for the next three weeks, and then get back to it?”
Schumer said he called House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and urged him to keep the House in session to try to get a deal done. The House is scheduled to leave Thursday, Dec. 14, for Christmas and New Years. The House will not return until 2024.
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