‘We Cannot Possibly Afford to Abandon Ukraine’
Zelensky pitches more aid for his country in terms of US jobs
Backers of further US support for Ukraine are not giving up, continuing to push their cause from both sides of the Atlantic.
In the United States, lawmakers like Sen Chris Coons (D-Del) persist in making the case for additional US assistance to aid Ukraine in its nearly two-year-old war to fight the ongoing invasion ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
President Biden's led an international effort to aid Ukraine, including domestic efforts in concert with Congress, to direct more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support.
That US aid is now drying up as the Republican-led House has not introduced any additional legislation to authorize further funding for Russia’s embattled neighbor.
“Well, there's a small minority in the Senate and a larger group in the House that want us to abandon Ukraine. This is something former president [Donald] Trump has been encouraging. But President Biden and the leaders in the Senate, both Republican and Democrat, are rock-solid in their support of Ukraine,” said Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Our challenge is that the president’s supplemental request for funding, which would fund Ukraine, Israel, critical humanitarian relief and border security is held up in negotiations, to see whether or not we can come to an agreement, to make some policy changes around asylum law.
“We have to bear down, get this done, and get this supplemental passed soon, because the brave Ukrainians who are fighting as winter is coming are looking at losing the supplies they’ve needed for ammunition, for missiles, for drones, for defense, for armor, and we cannot possibly afford to abandon Ukraine,” Coons added. “If our Republican colleagues demand too much in this negotiation, we won’t be able to get it passed in the Senate and then in the House, and I think this would be a strategic mistake of catastrophic proportions, to let Putin win in Russia and in Europe.”
On the other side of the Atlantic, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also continues to lobby for further US support, casting it as a jobs and economic opportunity for the American people.
Production of additional ammunition and weapons for Ukraine’s defense will produce jobs both in Ukraine and the United States, Zelensky said.
“So the part, the big part will be production in your state, different states. Yes, also in Ukraine. That is jobs for Americans and for Ukrainians. It’s very important,” he said. “I hope that Congress will help us and I hope that the help of the United States will be around Ukrainian people and I hope that the United States will be with us against Russian terrorism. So, we are fighting for common values, it’s very important. But we are losing our people.”
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