{"id":18084,"date":"2023-09-21T06:28:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T11:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18084"},"modified":"2023-09-21T06:28:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T11:28:53","slug":"zelenskyy-returns-to-washington-to-face-growing-dissent-among-republicans-to-us-spending-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18084","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy returns to Washington to face growing dissent among Republicans to US spending for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returns to Washington on Thursday for a whirlwind one-day visit, this time to face the Republicans now\u00a0questioning the flow of American dollars\u00a0that for 19 months has kept his troops in the fight against Russian forces.
Zelenskyy will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, speak with U.S. military leaders at the Pentagon and stop at Capitol Hill to talk privately with Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate as the world is watching Western support for Kyiv.
It is Zelenskyy\u2019s second visit to Washington since\u00a0Russia invaded Ukraine\u00a0in February 2022 and comes as Biden\u2019s request to Congress for an additional $24 billion for Ukraine\u2019s military and humanitarian needs is hanging in the balance.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the Ukrainian president \u201cour best messenger\u201d in persuading U.S. lawmakers to keep vital U.S. money and weapons coming.
\u201cIt\u2019s really important for members of Congress to be able to hear directly from the president about what he\u2019s facing in this counteroffensive,\u201d Kirby told reporters Wednesday, \u201cand how he\u2019s achieving his goals, and what he needs to continue to achieve those goals.\u201d
Biden has called on world leaders to stand strong with Ukraine, even as he faces domestic political divisions at home. A hard-right flank of Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, Biden\u2019s chief rival in the 2024 race for the White House, is increasingly opposed to sending more money overseas.
As the White House worked to shore up support for Ukraine before Zelenskyy\u2019s visit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top intelligence officials briefed senior lawmakers behind closed doors Wednesday to argue the case.
But some Senate Republicans walked out of the briefing no more convinced than before about the necessity of spending more on Ukraine. \u201cIt\u2019s not close to the end,\u201d Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re basically told is, \u2018Buckle up and get out your checkbook.\u201d\u2019
Since the start of the war, most members of Congress supported approving four rounds of aid to Ukraine, totaling about $113 billion, viewing defense of the country and its democracy as an imperative, especially when it comes to containing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some of that money went toward replenishing U.S. military equipment sent to the frontlines.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who traveled to Kyiv this week, said cutting off U.S. aid during the Ukrainians\u2019 counteroffensive would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d to their efforts.
\u201cThat would clearly be the opening that Putin is looking for,\u201d Kelly said Wednesday. \u201cThey cannot be successful without our support.\u201d
The political environment has shifted markedly since\u00a0Zelenskyy addressed Congress\u00a0last December on his first trip out of Ukraine since the war began. He was met with rapturous applause for his country\u2019s bravery and surprisingly strong showing in the war.
His meeting with senators on Thursday will take place behind closed doors in the Old Senate Chamber, a historical and intimate place of importance at the U.S. Capitol, signifying the respect the Senate is showing the foreign leader.
But on the other side of the Capitol, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who faces more opposition within his Trump-aligned ranks to supporting Ukraine, is planning a separate meeting with Zelenskyy, with a smaller bipartisan group of lawmakers and committee chairmen.
\u201cI will have questions for President Zelenskyy,\u201d McCarthy told reporters before the visit.
The House speaker said he wanted more accountability for the money the U.S. has already approved for Ukraine before moving ahead with more.
And, McCarthy said, he wants to know, \u201cWhat is the plan for victory?\u201d
In the Senate, however, Ukraine has a strong ally in Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is out front in pushing his party, and the president, to continue robust support for Kyiv.
McConnell urged Biden before Wednesday\u2019s closed-door briefing to senators to make sure the administration\u2019s top brass puts forward a more forceful case in support of Ukraine so Congress can send Zelenskyy what\u2019s needed to win the war.
\u201cI sometimes get the sense that I speak more about Ukraine matters than the president does,\u201d McConnell said in a speech Wednesday.
apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returns to Washington on Thursday for a whirlwind one-day visit, this time to face the Republicans now\u00a0questioning the flow of American dollars\u00a0that for 19 months has kept his troops in the fight against Russian forces.Zelenskyy will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, speak with U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1580,1416,20943,1227,1826],"class_list":["post-18084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-republicans","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-washington","tag-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18086,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084\/revisions\/18086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}