“If we don’t get help, we will lose the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a closed-door meeting with about 50 U.S. senators in Washington. the support line for Ukraine. Zelensky’s warning came after he received bad news early in the morning from one of his key allies: Poland, in the midst of a trade dispute with Kiev, announced that it will not send any more weapons than those already agreed. Polish President Andrzej Duda claims Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s words have been misinterpreted.
After a visit to the United Nations, Zelensky traveled to Washington for a dialogue that he already knew would be difficult. Particularly because the Ukrainian counter-offensive did not produce results as quickly as desired, pressure has been growing among some republican sectors for months to cut aid to Ukraine. The US is Kiev’s most important ally, with Congress having approved more than $100 billion in aid, including $43 billion in weapons.
While Zelensky received at least ten ovations during his speech to both chambers of Congress during his first visit to the Capitol in December, this time he was only heard in a closed-door session in the old Senate chamber. “It was an excellent dialogue,” he told reporters at the exit, indicating that senators had many questions. “We have discussed many details, but they remain between us, sorry,” he added. It was Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, who said after Zelensky said that without U.S. help, Ukraine will lose the war. “One single sentence that summed it all up,” he claimed.
The visit of the Ukrainian president comes at a time when Congress is focusing on a discussion about the budget, with the risk of a shutdown (when there is no more money to meet obligations and it is necessary to cut non-essential services). That puts the $24 billion Ukrainian aid package at risk. Zelensky has defended the need for greater investment in air defense.
“Ukraine is sincerely grateful to the House of Representatives, both parties, and to the entire American people for their support.” Zelensky wrote on Twitter after meeting with majority and minority leaders Steve Scalise and Hakeem Jeffries and the speaker Kevin McCarthy. “I repeat that the Ukrainian victory will ensure that neither Russia nor any other dictatorship destabilizes the free world again. To win we must all stand together and work together,” he added.
After the Capitol, the Ukrainian president was at the Pentagon before heading to the White House for another meeting with US President Joe Biden. Even before the meeting, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that Biden would announce another military aid package, including air defense capabilities, but will not yet send the ATACMS long-range missile system.
Polish coup
Zelensky’s difficult day in Washington came after one of his key allies in the war against Russia suffered a major blow. Polish Prime Minister Matthew Morawiecki said Wednesday evening that Poland will “not transfer any more weapons to Ukraine” and that it is “mainly concentrating on the modernization and rapid arming of the Polish army.”.
These statements come in the middle of a trade dispute between Warsaw and Kiev, after Poland, Hungary and Slovakia decided to unilaterally extend the ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine. This is despite the fact that the European Union has decided to lift the restrictions, which were initially applied in an attempt to protect farmers in these countries from the entry of Ukrainian products. In response, Ukraine filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization on Monday.
Following Morawiecki’s statements, former President of the European Council and opposition leader Donald Tusk accused the government of this “Putting a political knife in the back of Ukraine” for electoral purposes only. Poland will vote in October. Ultimately, however, the president claimed that the prime minister’s words had been “misinterpreted.” According to Duda, Morawiecki “meant to say that we are not going to send to Ukraine the new weapons that we are buying to modernize the Polish army.”
Ukraine is already anticipating the “difficult months” ahead, after energy installations in the center and west of the country were targeted by Russian bombing for the first time in six months. They were the largest attacks since mid-August, hitting six towns and killing at least two and wounding 21. Electricity outages were also registered at almost 400 locations. According to Ukrainian authorities, at least 36 of the 43 missiles launched by the Russians were intercepted.
Source: DN
