President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the US Congress on Tuesday to hold talks with Republicans who have increasingly refused to support Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion by renewing US military aid.
The AFP news agency was one of the first to report this.
Zelensky was supposed to meet with the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives, and then go to the White House for negotiations with US President Joe Biden.
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The meeting with American legislators from both parties will be held behind closed doors.
In footage of the Ukrainian president's arrival on Capitol Hill, the head of state was surrounded by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, as well as the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in the US Senate.
After this, the head of the Ukrainian state must meet with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
Before this, Johnson had already noted that at the meeting with Zelensky he would voice the same thing as he had voiced earlier: “help to Ukraine is important, but protecting US borders is more important for American legislators& #8221;.
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This visit of the Ukrainian President to the US capital was the third during the full-scale Russian invasion.
On Monday, speaking at the National Defense University in Washington, Zelensky directly called for more security assistance, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeing his “dreams come true” , while delays continue in Congress.
But prospects for success in Washington look dim this week as talks to tie new aid to Ukraine to tougher immigration rules stall.
As CNN notes, Zelensky's challenge during this visit is the need to convince skeptical lawmakers that tens of billions in additional American aid could help make a difference on a battlefield where Ukraine has made little progress in recent months.
Previously, ICTV Facts reported that during Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Washington, the key will not be the meeting with the head of the White House Biden, but the communication of the Ukrainian leader with influential congressmen.
