Zelensky urges US Congress to approve new Ukraine aid

WASHINGTON (AFP): President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the US Congress to approve additional aid for Kyiv, saying in an interview broadcast Thursday that a failure to do so will cost Ukrainian lives.

Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have stalled the approval of $60 billion in new aid for Ukraine, and Zelensky made his appeal for action during an interview with Fox News — a favored channel for US conservatives.

“Will Ukraine survive without Congress’ support? Of course. But not all of us,” Zelensky told Fox’s Bret Baier in an interview near a front line in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader also warned that the price of helping Kyiv now is much lower than the potential cost of confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin later if he succeeds in Ukraine.

The United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine and is by far Kyiv’s biggest donor. But existing funding has dried up, and former president Donald Trump’s allies in the House have been stalling new assistance.

Trump, the likely Republican nominee in the November presidential election, opposes helping Kyiv and recently used his sway to kill a US border reform bill that would have also authorized additional aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that he was ready to take Trump to the frontlines in Ukraine, saying policy makers should see what real war entails.