Volodymyr Zelensky's first official visit to Washington, in September 2021, was ill-timed: The Biden administration was wrapping up its chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Then came Moscow's war.
His second visit in December 2022 took place amid bipartisan euphoria and the Ukrainian president was welcomed like a star and a hero. The Russian annexation had been largely thwarted and significant territory had been reclaimed by the Kyiv forces, with exceptional support from Ukraine's allies. Zelensky's third visit, on Thursday, September 21, was marked by a double uncertainty: the outcome of the conflict, after 19 months of fighting, and the steadfastness of American support.
After a visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Zelensky arrived in the American capital in the midst of a budgetary drama, provoked by Republican politicians. Nine days away from a possible shutdown – a halt to all non-essential government activities for lack of funding – the Ukrainian leader spent part of the morning in Congress, defending the absolute necessity of a new $24 billion (€22.5 billion) military aid package, requested by the Biden administration.
This money is intended to cover the fourth quarter of 2023, and will inevitably be followed by another, very substantial one, for 2024, an election year in the United States. To date, the Biden administration has devoted nearly $47 billion in military aid to Ukraine. It's a major effort, but one that some Republicans want to halt or slow down, as if the war would magically stop by turning off the American tap.
Support for Ukraine is one of the issues on which elected MAGA members ("Make America Great Again," Donald Trump's slogan) have seized to put pressure on Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. Barely elected in January, he is under constant threat of a vote of no confidence. Ready to do anything to keep his job, he refused Zelensky the privilege of another address to Congress, as in December 2022. "We just didn't have the time," he claimed. For his part, Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader and staunch supporter of the Ukrainian cause, welcomed Zelensky on his arrival.
He first spent an hour behind closed doors with a group of elected House members, both Democrats and Republicans, before a similar meeting with senators in another wing of the building. Each time, Zelensky answered questions about the continuing conflict and the American interests at stake. "Mr. Zelensky said, ''If we don't get the aid, we will lose the war,'" summed up Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat.
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