President Zelenskiy made a dramatic appeal to the U.S. Congress, urging lawmakers to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington as it weighs more aid to the war-torn country.
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelenskiy said following a standing ovation from lawmakers.
Zelenskiy continued his calls for a no-fly zone over his country, his biggest request that U.S. And European countries have so far resisted. “If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative,” Zelenskiy said, stressing that the country needs more air defense systems like the S-300.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered an emotional address to the U.S. Congress, appealing for help from Americans to fend off the Russian invasion. Moscow asked the U.S. to stop weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
Today the two sides are scheduled for another round of talks. The Kremlin said that a neutral Ukraine with its own army could be a possible compromise in the current crisis while Kyiv said it needed firm security guarantees in any outcome.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces are advancing through urban areas in the Luhansk region town of Sievierodonetsk. Russia continues to strike infrastructure targets while the overall military situation is largely unchanged. The state emergency service said a shell hit a 12-story apartment building in Kyiv, causing a fire and injuries.
President Joe Biden will travel to Europe for NATO and European Union summits next week. NATO defense ministers are in Brussels to discuss ways to reinforce the alliance’s eastern members and prevent spillover from the war in Ukraine, a risk illustrated by recent crashes of drones.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and his U.S. counterpart Jake Sullivan discussed Ukraine in a telephone conversation, during which Patrushev called on the U.S. to stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy asked lawmakers to sanction all politicians in the Russian Federation who do not cut ties with those backing the invasion of Ukraine and stressed that “all American companies must leave Russia.” During his address to the U.S. Congress, Zelenskiy played a graphic video of the destruction in Ukraine that ended with the words: “Close the sky over Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian leader, who at first spoke through an interpreter and then later switched to English, closed with a direct appeal to Biden, saying, “And, in the end, to sum it up, today it’s not enough to be the leader of the nation.”
