Zelenskyy warns Congress, DoD that Kyiv will lose without aid

WASHINGTON ― Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House and Capitol Hill on Thursday with specific objectives at each place: secure long-range munitions from the U.S. while persuading skeptical Republicans to pass a fifth aid package for Kyiv worth $25 billion.

“If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war,” multiple senators recounted Zelenskyy saying after a rare meeting in the historic Old Senate Chamber.

But Zelenskyy’s message appeared to fall on deaf ears. The White House still refuses to provide the long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, Kyiv has sought for more than a year, previously supportive Republicans are turning against additional assistance and Poland has halted the transfer of arms to Ukraine amid a trade dispute over grain.

During the meeting, Zelenskyy made the case that Ukraine has degraded the Russian military, but that Moscow would be able to reconstitute its forces if Kyiv doesn’t keep the pressure up over the next several months.

He also pushed the U.S. to provide ATACMS, which can fly as far as 186 miles when fired from HIMARS. This would allow Kyiv to strike Russian assets positioned deep in occupied Ukrainian territory, beyond the current range of most of Ukraine’s artillery.

The majority of senators support providing Ukraine with another aid package, which would include $13 billion for the Pentagon to continue providing military support against Russia’s invasion. Not so in the House, where a growing coalition of Republicans is coming out against the White House’s latest aid request.

Zelenskyy did not have the opportunity to meet with many members of the growing group of House Republican skeptics because Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not arrange a similar all-members briefing in the lower chamber. Instead, McCarthy received Zelenskyy in a meeting with leadership as well as the Republican heads and top Democrats of key committees.

Zelenskyy had asked to address another joint meeting of Congress like he did in December, which more than half of the House Republican caucus skipped. But McCarthy declined, citing the House’s time constraints.

House Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., described the House meeting with Zelenskyy as “cordial,” but declined to commit to advancing another Ukraine aid package. He noted his priority right now is securing passage of the annual defense spending bill — which the House failed to pass on Thursday for the third time in two weeks on the cusp of a government shutdown amid a revolt from the far-right Freedom Caucus.

McCarthy also did not commit to passing another Ukraine aid package after the meeting.

If Congress does not pass a fifth aid package, the Pentagon still has roughly $5.5 billion in drawdown authority it says it can use to continue transferring weapons to Ukraine past the end of the fiscal year, which concludes this month. But another $2.5 billion in authority to backfill U.S. stockpiles of weapons sent to Kyiv would expire.

Congress has already passed a cumulative $113 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year.

Republican conditions

Numerous House Republicans aligned with the Freedom Caucus have opposed previous tranches of aid , but now even defense hawks have started to lay down red lines on additional assistance.

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who chairs the House Armed Services subcommitee on readiness, said “the era of Ukraine’s blank check from Congress is over” in a Fox News op-ed on Monday. Waltz called for conditions on Ukraine aid, without offering details.

On Thursday, after Zelenskyy’s visit, a Republican defense appropriator who previously supported Ukrainian assistance released his own set of conditions for future aid packages.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., issued a list of 12 conditions to secure his vote on future aid packages, some of which were unrelated to Ukraine. They include a public update from President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the status of the war, a Biden administration report on sanctions enforcement against Russia as well as a “coherent strategy for Ukraine to prevail” and under what timeline.

He also called for all NATO members to “adopt a full sanctions policy” on Russian grain, rare-earth minerals and oil — something several European countries have been hesitant to do for fear of worsening their economies. The unrelated conditions include passage of a House Republican immigration bill strongly opposed by Democrats and support for a junior enlisted pay raise Garcia secured in the defense spending bill, which the White House opposes .

Conversely, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, lambasted the Biden administration for not providing the long-range ATACMS, which Zelenskyy had hoped to secure during his visit.

“Does the Biden administration want Ukraine to win, or not?” Wicker said in a statement. “Every delay in supplying Ukraine with the tools it needs to secure victory has cost unnecessary lives and prolonged the war.”

He called on the White House to send Congress another supplemental spending request with money to expand production lines for ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles.

Laura Cressey, director of arms transfers at the State Department’s political-military affairs bureau, told the Defense News Conference earlier this month the Biden administration is “closely considering” long-range fires for Ukraine . But it’s unclear whether the U.S. has enough ATACMS in its stocks to send Kyiv without compromising its own readiness.

A provision in the House’s fiscal 2024 defense policy bill would require the Pentagon to build the Lockheed Martin-made ballistic missiles for Kyiv via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Britain has also provided long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine.

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——乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基周四访问了白宫和国会山，他在每个地方都有明确的目标：从美国获得远程弹药，同时说服持怀疑态度的共和党人通过第五项价值 250 亿美元的对基辅援助计划。

“如果我们得不到援助，我们就会输掉这场战争，”多位参议员回忆说，泽连斯基在历史悠久的旧参议院会议厅举行的一次罕见会议上这样说道。

但泽连斯基的呼吁似乎无人理睬。白宫仍然拒绝提供基辅一年多来一直寻求的远程陆军战术导弹系统（ATACMS），此前支持援助的共和党人也开始反对提供更多援助，而波兰则因粮食贸易争端而停止向乌克兰转让武器。

在会晤中，泽连斯基表示，乌克兰削弱了俄罗斯军队，但如果基辅在接下来的几个月里不继续施压，莫斯科将能够重建其军队。

他还敦促美国提供ATACMS导弹，这种导弹从HIMARS高射速导弹发射时射程可达186英里。这将使基辅能够打击部署在被占领乌克兰领土纵深的俄罗斯目标，超出乌克兰目前大多数火炮的射程。

大多数参议员支持向乌克兰提供另一项援助计划，其中包括向五角大楼拨款130亿美元，用于继续为乌克兰提供军事支持，以对抗俄罗斯的入侵。但在众议院，情况并非如此，越来越多的共和党人公开反对白宫最新的援助请求。

泽连斯基没有机会与众议院日益壮大的共和党怀疑论者群体中的许多成员会面，因为众议院议长、加州共和党人凯文·麦卡锡没有在众议院安排类似的全体议员简报会。相反，麦卡锡安排泽连斯基与众议院领导层、共和党主席以及关键委员会的民主党高层会面。

泽连斯基曾要求像去年12月那样再次在国会联席会议上发表讲话，但当时超过半数的众议院共和党议员缺席了会议。不过，麦卡锡以众议院时间有限为由拒绝了这一请求。

众议院国防拨款委员会主席、加州共和党众议员肯·卡尔弗特称众议院与泽连斯基的会晤“气氛友好”，但他拒绝承诺推进另一项对乌克兰的援助方案。他指出，他目前的首要任务是确保年度国防开支法案获得通过——由于极右翼自由党团的反对，众议院在政府停摆的边缘，于周四第三次未能通过该法案，这已是两周内第三次了。

会后，麦卡锡也没有承诺会通过另一项对乌克兰的援助方案。

如果国会不通过第五轮援助方案，五角大楼仍拥有约55亿美元的撤军授权，据称可用于在本财年（本月结束）之后继续向乌克兰输送武器。但另有25亿美元的授权，用于补充美国向基辅输送的武器库存，将到期失效。

自去年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，美国国会已累计通过了1130亿美元的军事和经济援助用于援助乌克兰。

共和党的条件

许多与自由党团结盟的众议院共和党人曾反对之前的几批援助，但现在就连国防鹰派也开始对额外的援助划定红线。

众议院军事委员会战备小组委员会主席、佛罗里达州共和党众议员迈克·沃尔兹周一在福克斯新闻发表评论文章称，“国会给乌克兰开空白支票的时代已经结束了”。沃尔兹呼吁对乌克兰援助附加条件，但未提供具体细节。

周四，在泽连斯基访问之后，一位此前支持援助乌克兰的共和党国防拨款官员公布了他自己对未来援助方案的一系列条件。

加州共和党众议员迈克·加西亚列出了12项条件，以确保他投票支持未来的援助方案，其中一些条件与乌克兰无关。这些条件包括：总统乔·拜登和国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀就战争现状公开汇报；拜登政府提交一份关于对俄制裁执行情况的报告；以及制定一项“确保乌克兰取得胜利的连贯战略”及其时间表。

他还呼吁所有北约成员国对俄罗斯的粮食、稀土矿产和石油“采取全面制裁政策”——一些欧洲国家因担心损害本国经济而对此犹豫不决。其他附加条件包括：众议院通过一项共和党提出的移民法案（该法案遭到民主党的强烈反对）；以及支持加西亚在国防开支法案中争取到的、白宫反对的初级士兵加薪条款。

相反，参议院军事委员会首席共和党议员、来自密西西比州的罗杰·威克猛烈抨击拜登政府没有提供远程ATACMS导弹，而泽连斯基希望在访问期间获得这种导弹。

威克尔在一份声明中说：“拜登政府到底想不想让乌克兰赢？每一次拖延向乌克兰提供其取得胜利所需资源，都造成了不必要的生命损失，并延长了战争。”

他呼吁白宫向国会提交另一份补充支出申请，拨款扩大ATACMS和精确打击导弹的生产线。

美国国务院政治军事事务局武器转让主任劳拉·克雷西本月早些时候在国防新闻发布会上表示，拜登政府正在“密切考虑”对乌克兰进行远程火力打击。但目前尚不清楚美国是否有足够的ATACMS导弹库存，能够在不影响自身战备的情况下向基辅提供这些导弹。

众议院2024财年国防政策法案中的一项条款将要求五角大楼通过乌克兰安全援助计划为基辅建造洛克希德·马丁公司制造的弹道导弹。英国也向乌克兰提供了远程“风暴阴影”巡航导弹。

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。