President Zelensky Will Address The Full US Congress On The Russia-Ukraine Conflict

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s president will deliver a virtual address to Congress in an attempt to increase pressure on the White House to take a tougher stance on Russia’s invasion.
The appeal comes as both sides begin a new round of talks in the midst of deadly air strikes in Kyiv, nearly three weeks after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered the attack.

“We look forward to the honour of welcoming President (Volodymyr) Zelensky’s address to the House and Senate, and to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend democracy,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint letter to lawmakers.

The Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, Anthony Rota, said Zelensky would also speak.

Zelensky’s pleas for assistance in defending his country from Russia’s lethal assault have grown increasingly desperate, and he has repeatedly requested military hardware from Washington, the European Union, and NATO.

In a video call on March 5, Zelensky, dressed in a military-green T-shirt and seated beside a Ukrainian flag, pleaded for Russian-made planes to lawmakers from the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States.

Poland has offered to send MiG-29 fighter jets from the Soviet Union to Ukraine via a US air base in Germany.

Fearing that the move would exacerbate tensions with Russia, the White House rejected the proposal, saying it raised “serious concerns” for the entire NATO alliance.

And, over the weekend, Moscow confirmed that its troops could target Western weapons supplies in Ukraine, and that the influx of arms would turn convoys “into legitimate targets.”

However, there is growing support on both sides of the aisle for a more assertive US posture.

Fighting chance’

“What we’ve heard directly from the Ukrainians is that they want them badly,” Republican Senator Rob Portman said of the planes during a trip to the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday.

“They want better control over the skies in order to give themselves a fighting chance. I’m not sure why we aren’t doing it.”

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was also on the visit, told the network that she had discussed the fighters with Biden “about 10 days ago,” adding, “I’d like to see the planes over there.”

Last week, Republicans led calls for the transfer, but military veterans among Democrats and the 58-member bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have also backed the move.

“With Russia’s alarming disregard for Ukrainian civilian casualties,” they wrote in a letter of support, “the US must… help supply more comprehensive air defence systems to defend Ukraine and its people.”

Congress usually defers to the White House on foreign policy, but it has been increasingly successful in pressuring the Biden administration for a more punitive response to Russia’s aggression.

Members of both parties called for tougher sanctions against Russia and authorised more than doubling the amount of military and humanitarian aid requested by the administration for Ukraine.

Congress was also seen as nudging Biden to announce a US ban on Russian oil, which was seen as politically risky given the country’s spiralling gas prices, and for Washington to end permanent normal trade relations with Russia.