Ukraine’s Zelensky delivers historic speech to Congress, meets Biden in wartime visit to US
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Washington in the first known trip out of his country since the war with Russia began in February
- After a new round of US military aid for Ukraine is announced, President Joe Biden pledges that the ‘American people will stay with you as long as it takes’
“Ukraine is alive and kicking”, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of the war-wrecked country, told a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday, eliciting thunders of applause and multiple rounds of standing ovation from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Directly addressing the American public, he said that Russia stands defeated in “the battle for minds of the world”. Calling it a victory of Americans and Europeans, he declared that “Russian tyranny has lost control over us”.
Zelensky’s visit to Washington, his first travels outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February, came as US lawmakers are set to approve a US$1.7 trillion spending bill that will allocate US$45 billion in additional assistance to Ukraine and Nato.
“Your money is not charity, it is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle with utmost responsibility”, he said, adding that he was thankful for the financial and military support but it was “not enough”.
He warned that it was “only a matter of time” that Russia, along with its ally Iran, will “strike against your other allies”.
Zelensky also thanked US President Joe Biden for backing his 10-point peace formula, which he laid out during the G20 summit in Bali in November.