2023-09-21 19:16:00
The President of Ukraine, Volodmir Zelensky, obtained, this Thursday (21), in Washington, guarantees that he will receive air defense weapons in the war against Russia, but he will leave the United States without the long-range missiles he wanted.
The White House said President Joe Biden will announce a new aid package for the country that will include “air defense to help Ukraine,” but “has decided he will not deliver ATACMS missiles, although he has not ruled out that possibility in the future.”
With a serious face and wearing his usual military uniform, Zelensky was received by the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress, where new military and humanitarian aid for his country is being debated. He told journalists that he has maintained “a very good dialogue” with parliamentarians.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, an ardent supporter of helping Ukraine like Biden, said Zelensky said, “If we don’t get help, we’re going to lose the war.”
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“I emphasized that a victory for Ukraine would guarantee that neither Russia nor any other dictatorship can destabilize the free world again,” Zelensky declared on the social network X, formerly Twitter. “To win, we have to remain united,” he insisted.
The Ukrainian president also went to the Pentagon and was received, together with his wife, by Joe and Jill Biden, at 4 pm (Brasília time), at the White House.
The climate has changed in Washington since Zelensky visited the American capital, on December 21, 2022, for the first time since the Russian invasion, in February of the same year. At the time, the visit took place in secret. Now, the sense of urgency has disappeared, and the Republican opposition has taken control of the Lower House.
In any case, his speech to congressmen received two standing ovations from the audience, reported Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on On the ground.
“I asked him: what do you need? What is your plan for victory?”, added the congressman, who believes in the approval of new aid of US$ 24 billion (around R$ 118 billion, at the current price) . And this despite arduous negotiations with the Republicans, whose House leader, Kevin McCarthy, is under pressure from the more conservative wing of his party to cut off supplies to Kiev.
Budget
The risk of budget paralysis in the United States further complicates the situation if parliamentarians do not reach an agreement before October 1st on at least a provisional law.
One of the obstacles in the negotiations is the budget dedicated to military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
It is “vital” that Congress disburses the $24 billion requested by the Executive to support the Ukrainians, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
The American president is aware of the danger of losing momentum as the war drags on and winter approaches.
“Russia believes that the world will get tired and let it destroy Ukraine without consequences,” the American president, candidate for re-election in 2024, warned on Tuesday at the UN.
During an extraordinary session of the UN Security Council, on Wednesday (20), Zelensky denounced Moscow’s “criminal aggression” and the “blockade” of the UN body because of the Russian veto right.
Biden wants to “get a sense of what’s going on on the battlefield” but also “to tell President Zelensky very clearly that we will be with them as long as it takes,” Kirby said Wednesday.
The issue of providing aid to Ukraine also appears to be complicated in other countries, such as Poland, one of Kiev’s main allies since the start of the Russian invasion, amid a recent dispute over cereal exports.
On Wednesday, the Polish government stated that it will no longer supply weapons to Ukraine and that it will invest in equipping its own Army. However, this Thursday (21), he assured that the statement about the end of arms shipments was misinterpreted and that he is “willing to talk”.
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