Zelenskyy asks Congress for more air defenses as Ukraine aid dwindles

WASHINGTON ― Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a last-minute visit to Washington on Tuesday to make the case for additional air defense support.

But it’s unclear whether Congress will overcome its partisan gridlock and pass the $61 billion supplemental package in economic and security aid needed to unlock that assistance.

“President Biden and I discussed how to increase our strength for next yea r: air defense and destroying Russian logistics on Ukraine’s land,” Zelenskyy said while taking questions from reporters at a White House press conference, his first time doing so in his three trips to Washington since Russia’s invasion. “Like our victory on the Black Sea, we aim to win the air battle, crushing Russian air dominance.”

Zelenskyy said achieving air superiority against Russia would allow Ukraine to “intensify our ground offensive in 2024 with our control of the skies: who controls the skies controls the war’s duration.”

He also noted he met with U.S. defense industry leaders who “advised us on how to make our defense industries work faster and more effectively.” The Commerce Department hosted a U.S.-Ukraine Defense Industrial Base Conference last week with the aim of bringing the two countries’ defense industries closer together.

The Ukrainian president swung by Washington on Tuesday on his way back from Argentinean President Javier Milei’s inauguration with the aim of convincing increasingly skeptical Republican lawmakers in the U.S. to pass additional Ukraine aid.

Zelenskyy addressed the full Senate and met independently with House Democrats, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not schedule time for him to brief the full House — the main obstacle to getting an aid package over the finish line. At the White House, he described his meeting with Johnson as “positive.”

“But we know that we have to separate words and particular results,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “Therefore, we will count on particular results.”

It looks increasingly unlikely Congress will act on Ukraine aid by the end of the year, if at all.

At the end of the week, Johnson intends to put the House on recess through the holidays, despite pleas from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to stay in session to move Biden’s massive defense supplemental spending request. The request includes funds for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and the U.S. southern border.

Pausing movement until January would intertwine it with what’s shaping up to be a contentious debate over fiscal 2024 spending levels, with the continuing resolution set to expire toward the end of the month.

While Ukraine aid still enjoys majority bipartisan support in both chambers, a contingent of House Republicans who previously voted to arm Kyiv remain skeptical of appropriating more money after passing a cumulative $113 billion last year to help the war-torn country defend itself against Russia. Johnson has refused to put a Ukraine aid package on the floor unless it’s paired with a hardline immigration bill opposed by Democrats.

And while Biden has said he’s willing to make “significant compromises” to advance Ukraine aid — including overhauling U.S. asylum laws — Republicans have blocked the package from moving forward in the Senate, despite the fact that they’re significantly more supportive of Kyiv than many of their House colleagues.

The Biden administration has less than $5 billion to continue transferring weapons to Ukraine and r oughly $1 billion to backfill U.S. stockpiles of equipment it has already sent Kyiv.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., issued a statement after Zelenskyy’s visit, noting that “failing to renew aid altogether may well allow [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to win the war.”

And Schumer said “if we don’t pass it quickly, it will send a signal to the whole world that we are abandoning Ukraine and could start a snowball cascading to Ukraine’s detriment and to our detriment.” Zelenskyy has previously warned Ukraine will lose the war without additional aid.

The Senate Democrats’ aid bill hews closely to Biden’s $106 billion defense supplemental request . Of the $61 billion for Ukraine, roughly $44 billion would go toward military support for Kyiv while increasing the president’s authority to continue transferring weapons to the Ukrainians and Israelis from U.S. stockpiles. It also includes roughly $14 billion in Israeli military aid and $2 billion in Foreign Military Financing for Indo-Pacific security partners.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, separately told reporters Zelenskyy emphasized the need for this money to obtain better Ukrainian air defense systems after his address to the Senate.

Romney said Zelenskyy especially singled out the Patriot missile system and longer-range Army Tactical Missile Systems as especially important.

Russia attacked Kyiv with a barrage of eight ballistic missiles on Monday , wounding four people. Ukrainian air defenses shot down four of those missiles.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

华盛顿——乌克兰总统泽连斯基周二临时访问华盛顿，争取获得更多防空支持。

但目前尚不清楚国会能否克服党派僵局，通过所需的 610 亿美元经济和安全援助补充方案，以启动这些援助。

泽连斯基在白宫新闻发布会上回答记者提问时表示：“拜登总统和我讨论了如何增强我们明年的实力：加强防空，摧毁俄罗斯在乌克兰境内的后勤保障。”这是自俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，泽连斯基三次访问华盛顿以来首次出席新闻发布会。“就像我们在黑海取得的胜利一样，我们的目标是赢得空战，彻底摧毁俄罗斯的空中优势。”

泽连斯基表示，取得对俄罗斯的空中优势将使乌克兰能够在2024年“凭借对制空权加强地面攻势：谁控制了制空权，谁就控制了战争的持续时间”。

他还提到，他会见了美国国防工业领导人，他们“就如何使我们的国防工业更快、更高效地运转提出了建议”。美国商务部上周主办了美乌国防工业基地会议，旨在加强两国国防工业的合作。

乌克兰总统周二在参加完阿根廷总统哈维尔·米莱的就职典礼后，顺道访问了华盛顿，目的是说服美国越来越持怀疑态度的共和党议员通过向乌克兰提供更多援助的法案。

泽连斯基向参议院全体议员发表了讲话，并分别会见了众议院民主党议员，但众议院议长、路易斯安那州共和党人迈克·约翰逊没有安排时间让他向众议院全体议员汇报情况——这是援助方案最终获得通过的主要障碍。在白宫，他形容与约翰逊的会面“积极”。

泽连斯基告诉记者：“但我们知道，必须将言辞和具体结果区分开来。因此，我们将寄希望于具体结果。”

国会似乎越来越不可能在年底前就乌克兰援助问题采取行动，即便会采取行动，也未必能实现。

本周结束时，约翰逊计划让众议院休会至假期结束，尽管参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默（纽约州民主党籍）恳求众议院继续开会，以推进拜登提出的巨额国防补充拨款请求。该请求包括用于乌克兰、以色列、印太地区和美国南部边境的资金。

暂停推进至一月份将使之与一场关于 2024 财年支出水平的激烈辩论交织在一起，而持续拨款决议将于本月底到期。

尽管对乌克兰的援助在参众两院仍获得多数两党支持，但此前投票支持向基辅提供武器的众议院共和党议员们，在去年已累计通过1130亿美元援助乌克兰抵御俄罗斯之后，仍然对拨款更多资金持怀疑态度。约翰逊拒绝将乌克兰援助方案提交表决，除非该方案与一项遭到民主党反对的强硬移民法案捆绑在一起。

尽管拜登表示愿意做出“重大妥协”来推进对乌克兰的援助——包括改革美国庇护法——但共和党人阻止了该方案在参议院获得通过，尽管他们比众议院的许多同僚更支持基辅。

拜登政府用于继续向乌克兰转移武器的资金不足 50 亿美元，用于补充美国已向基辅运送的装备库存的资金约为 10 亿美元。

参议院拨款委员会主席、华盛顿州民主党参议员帕蒂·默里在泽连斯基访问后发表声明，指出“完全不恢复援助很可能导致（俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·）普京赢得战争”。

舒默表示，“如果我们不尽快通过这项协议，就会向全世界发出我们正在抛弃乌克兰的信号，这可能会引发连锁反应，最终对乌克兰和我们自身都造成损害。”泽连斯基此前曾警告说，如果没有额外的援助，乌克兰将会输掉这场战争。

参议院民主党提出的援助法案与拜登1060亿美元的国防补充拨款请求基本一致。其中，拨给乌克兰的610亿美元中，约440亿美元将用于向基辅提供军事援助，同时扩大总统从美国军火库向乌克兰和以色列转移武器的权限。该法案还包括约140亿美元的以色列军事援助和20亿美元的印太安全伙伴外国军事融资。

参议院军事委员会主席杰克·里德（Jack Reed）和犹他州共和党参议员米特·罗姆尼（Mitt Romney）分别告诉记者，泽连斯基在向参议院发表讲话后强调，需要这笔资金来获得更好的乌克兰防空系统。

罗姆尼表示，泽连斯基特别强调了爱国者导弹系统和远程陆军战术导弹系统的重要性。

周一，俄罗斯向基辅发射了八枚弹道导弹，造成四人受伤。乌克兰防空部队击落了其中四枚导弹。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。