WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summoned memories of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terror attacks Wednesday in an impassioned live-video plea to Congress to send more help for Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Lawmakers stood and cheered, and President Joe Biden later announced the U.S. is sending more anti-aircraft, anti-armor weapons and drones.
Biden also declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal — his strongest condemnation yet — the day after the Senate unanimously asked for international investigations of Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.
In a moment of high drama at the Capitol, Zelenskyy livestreamed his speech to a rapt audience of lawmakers on a giant screen, acknowledging from the start that the no-fly zone he has repeatedly sought to “close the sky” to airstrikes on his country may not happen. Biden has resisted that, as well as approval for the U.S. or NATO to send MiG fighter jets from Poland as risking wider war with nuclear-armed Putin.
Instead, Zelenskyy pleaded for other military aid and more drastic economic sanctions to stop the Russian assault with the fate of his country at stake.
Wearing his now-trademark army green T-shirt, Zelinskyy began his remarks to “Americans, friends” by invoking the destruction the U.S. suffered in 1941 when Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by militants who commandeered passenger airplanes to crash into the symbols of Western democracy and economy.
“Remember Pearl Harbor? … Remember September 11?” Zelenskyy asked. “Our country experiences the same every day right now.”
To end the invasion, Zelenskyy told the American lawmakers: ““I call on you to do more.”
Nearing the three-week mark in an ever-escalating war, Zelenskyy has used the global stage to implore allied leaders to help stop the Russian invasion of his country. The young actor-turned-president has emerged as a heroic figure at the center of what many view as the biggest security threat to Europe since World War II. Almost 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine as the violence has spread, the fastest exodus in modern times.
Biden, who said he listened to Zelenskyy’s speech at the White House, did not directly respond to the the criticism that the U.S. should be doing more for the Ukrainians. But he said, “We are united in our abhorrence of Putin’s depraved onslaught, and we’re going to continue to have their backs as they fight for their freedom, their democracy, their very survival.”
Later, leaving an unrelated event, he declared of Putin: “He’s a war criminal.” — the sharpest condemnation yet of Putin and Russian actions by a U.S. official since the invasion of Ukraine.
Biden noted that Russia has bombed hospitals and held doctors hostage.
At the White Hose, Biden described new help he had already been prepared to announce. He said the U.S. will be sending an additional $800 million in military assistance, making a total of $2 billion in such aid since he took office more than a year ago. About $1 billion in aid has been sent in the past week. Biden said the new assistance includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 grenade launchers, 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launchers and mortar rounds and an unspecified number of drones.
“We’re going to give Ukraine the arms to fight and defend themselves through all the difficult days ahead,” Biden said.
Zelenskyy, speaking from the capital of Kyiv, showed the packed auditorium of lawmakers a graphic video of the destruction and devastation his country has suffered in the war, along with heartbreaking scenes of civilian casualties.
“We need you right now,” he said.
Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation, before and after his short remarks, which Zelenskyy began in Ukrainian through an interpreter but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed.
“I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths,” he said.
Among the new military hardware that Biden approved are 100 Switchblade 300 missile system drones that Zelenskyy had been seeking, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision. The official was not authorized to comment publicly by name about the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Lawmakers, with rare unity, appeared moved by the speech. Sen. Angus King, the Maine independent. said there was a “collective holding of the breath” in the room during Zelenskyy’s address. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, “If you did not look at that video and feel there is an obligation for not only the United States but the free countries of the world to come together in support of Ukraine, you had your eyes closed.” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin called the address heartbreaking and said, “I’m on board with a blank check on sanctions, just whatever we can do to stop this Russian advance.”
Outside the Capitol demonstrators held a large sign lawmakers saw as they walked back to their offices. “No Fly Zone=World War 3.”
The Ukrainian president is no stranger to Congress, having played a central role in Donald Trump’s first impeachment. As president, Trump was accused of withholding security aid to Ukraine as he pressured Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on political rival Biden. Zelenskyy spoke Wednesday to many of the same Republican lawmakers who declined to impeach or convict Trump, but are among the bipartisan groundswell in Congress now clamoring for military aid to Ukraine.
He thanked the American people for the outpouring of support, even as he urged Biden to do more.
“You are the leader of the nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world,” he said “Being the leader of the world means being the leader of peace.”
This was Zelenskyy’s latest visit as he uses the West’s great legislative bodies in his appeals for help. He invoked Shakespeare’s Hamlet last week at the British House of Commons, asking whether Ukraine is “to be or not to be” and telling Congress that people in his country want the same as Americans: “Democracy, independence, freedom.”
He often pushes for more help to save his young democracy than world leaders have so far pledged to provide.
Biden has insisted there will be no U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine.
“Direct conflict between NATO and Russia is World War III,” he has said.
Zelenskyy appeared to acknowledge the political reality beyond certain limits.
“Is this too much to ask, to create a no fly zone over Ukraine?” he asked, answering his own question. “If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative,” he said, calling for weapons systems that would help fight Russian aircraft.
Congress has already approved $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and the newly announced security aid will come from that allotment, which is part of a broader bill that Biden signed into law Tuesday.
___
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick,Ellen Knickmeyer, Farnoush Amiri, Kevin Freking, Alan Fram, Nomaan Merchant and Chris Megerian and Raf Casert in Brussels, Jill Lawless in London, Aritz Parra in Madrid and videojournalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.
Americans react to Zelenskyy plea with pain, empathy, hope
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans reacted with empathy, pain, frustration and in some cases anger Wednesday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s impassioned speech to the U.S. Congress pleading for more aid for a nation and a people under bloody siege.
Across the country, thousands shared video of Zelenskyy’s speech on social media, many especially pained by a clip he shared of bloodied children in hospitals, bodies in neighborhood streets, crumbling facades of apartment buildings and a ditch where the dead of war were being buried.
Many were struck by Zelenskyy’s comment that “I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the death.”
Eric Bottoms, a day trader from North Little Rock, Arkansas, said after watching the speech that America has an obligation to protect the citizens of Ukraine because Russian President Putin is “purposely targeting” them.
“It’s morally the right thing to do,” Bottoms said, comparing relative inaction to failing to stop Nazi Germany’s early aggressions in the last century. “If we’d done something earlier, how many more lives could have been saved?”
At Streecha, a tiny New York City restaurant that offers Ukrainian comfort food, a small group of workers watched Zelenskyy’s remarks live on TV. The canteen’s manager, Dmytro Kovalenko, moved to the U.S. from Ukraine in 2014 after the Russian invasion of Crimea.
Kovalenko said he still believed his home country could win the war if America offered more help, like anti-aircraft weapons or the enforcement of a no-fly zone. The latter option has been ruled out, for now, by the U.S. for fear of escalating the war.
“United States proved to be our friends and allies supporting us,” Kovalenko said. “Maybe they can do more. We will expect from them to do more. But at least you already proved you are our friends.”
Zelenskyy cited Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terror attacks as he appealed to Congress to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia. He also appealed for intensified U.S. financial sanctions against Russia.
It was appropriate for Zelenskyy to draw on the horrors of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor in his appeal to Americans, said Taisa Kulyk, a 22-year-old Harvard University senior and Cleveland, Ohio, native whose parents immigrated from Ukraine in 1996. “Ukraine is experiencing this every day, every night for three weeks now,” Kulyk said. “The world cannot just stand by and bear witness to terrorism on this scale.”
Zelenskyy “appealed to the American experience of terror, thus speaking directly to American voters,” said Oleh Kotsyuba, a 41-year-old scholar at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute who is originally from Ukraine.
President Joe Biden announced after Zelenskyy’s speech that the U.S. will be sending an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, including more anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons and drones. That makes a total of $2 billion in such aid sent to Kyiv since Biden took office more than a year ago.
In the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan, dozens of Ukrainian Americans watched as the flag of their homeland was raised in front of City Hall. Among them was Luba Kytasta, who described her initial reaction to Zelenskyy’s speech as: “Heartbreak, rage, outrage and hope.”
The outrage, Kytasta said, stemmed from “what’s happening to my people, to my country that I was born in,” as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who she said “wants to kill all of us, not only in Ukraine, because we’re suffering here, too.”
“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep – pretty much like all the other Ukrainians,” she said. “This is the only thing that’s on your mind.”
Kytasta said Zelenskyy’s address did provide her with hope, though.
“He’s very resolute. He’s very focused. Pretty much like all the Ukrainian fighters,” said Kytasta, who added, “I hope to God” his speech makes a difference.
The ever-lingering question of What to Do dominated social media posts reacting to Zelenskyy’s speech. A sense of anger — and helplessness — was paramount. Many said they could not sit back and let the carnage continue. Others warned that acceding to Zelenskyy’s requests for air power or anti-aircraft missiles could lead to World War III.
Still others criticized U.S. lawmakers who applauded Zelenskyy on Wednesday but had voted against impeaching and convicting then-President Donald Trump for withholding U.S. military aid to Zelenskyy’s government in 2019.
In Warren, Mykola Murskyj, with the Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan, said he has lost 9 pounds worrying about friends and family since the war started.
“We’re spending every waking moment working for Ukraine,” said Murskyj, who watched Zelenskyy’s speech online in the kitchen of his sister’s Detroit-area home.
“It was a very moving address,” he said. “There are mothers and children dying in the streets, apartments being bombed, nuclear power plants being attacked — things that a month ago were completely unimaginable in Europe.
“And now they’re happening, and we have to do something.”
___
AP video journalist Joseph Frederick reported from New York. Associated Press writers Householder reported from Warren, Michigan, and Hanson from Helena, Montana. Philip Marcelo in Boston contributed to this report.