BUILDING “MOMENTUM” FOR AID
But traditional Republicans including Senator Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, support assistance to Ukraine.
“We have confidence that there will be bipartisan support for this. I think President Zelenskyy does as well, and he wants to build momentum towards that as we head to the end of the month,” Sullivan said.
“Frankly, Republicans and Democrats both recognise that the United States cannot – in its own naked self-interest, let alone the moral obligations we have – walk away from Ukraine at this critical moment,” Sullivan said.
Ukraine launched a counter-offensive against entrenched Russian positions in June but progress has been limited, spurring the political debate in the West over support for Kyiv.
The United States has provided US$43 billion in security assistance as Ukraine holds off Russian incursions.
Biden last month asked Congress for another US$40 billion for Ukraine, both in emergency defense aid and economic and humanitarian assistance.
It will be Zelenskyy’s second visit to Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In December, he secretly flew to the US capital on his first international trip during the war, entering the White House in the military fatigues that have become his trademark.
Zelenskyy has felt increasingly confident in traveling overseas, from European allies to Saudi Arabia and Japan, where he met leaders at the Group of Seven summit in May.
Biden paid his own surprise visit to Kyiv in February, a highly unusual trip to a zone of active combat for the security-conscious White House.
Biden, who has sought to rebut criticism he is too old for the job, has started to air the campaign advertisements of his Kyiv visit, with the 80-year-old president strutting confidently in his sunglasses alongside Zelenskyy.
Source: CNA
