Washington, Dec 12 (EFE). – The President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced on Tuesday during a meeting at the White House with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenski, that he had approved the disbursement of another 200 million dollars in military aid to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
The $200 million announced Tuesday are part of a previously approved budget that is nearing depletion.
Tuesday’s meeting was the third between Zelensky and Biden in Washington since the war began, and it comes at a delicate time, as the Republican opposition has blocked new funds for Ukraine.
Biden has so far unsuccessfully asked Congress to approve a new aid package of about $106 billion, including 61 billion for Ukraine and another 15 for Israel.
Faced with the rejection, Biden urged during the meeting with the Ukrainian president that “Congress needs to supplemental funding for Ukraine before they leave for the holidays, before they give Putin the biggest Christmas gift they can give him.”
Biden also told Zelensky that he does not want the Ukrainians to give up and also warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attack Ukrainian power plants again to make the situation worse during the winter.
Zelensky, for his part, thanked Biden for the shown so far and assured that his country “can win” the war, but said it needs more air defense systems to do so.
The Ukranian leader arrived at the White House at about 1:40 pm local time, having previously been on Capitol Hill, where he met with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
As leaked after the closed-door meeting in Congress, Zelensky told senators that he could not imagine that Congress would not approve the money for Ukraine and answered questions from lawmakers about how US aid is being used.
Republicans skeptical of military aid to Kiev indicated that the meeting with Zelensky would not change their minds.
After the meeting with the senators, Zelensky held a meeting with Johnson, the Speaker of the Lower House where Republicans have a majority and where opposition to approving money for Kiev is strongest.
Johnson declared after the encounter that “the Biden istration seems to be asking for billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win, and none of the answers that … the American people are owed.”
In addition, he once again put on the table the Republicans’ condition for negotiating the Kiev package, which is to reform the asylum immigration policy.
“Our first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is about our own national security first,” he said.
Zelensky arrived in Washington on Monday after attending the inauguration of Javier Milei as Argentina’s new president in Buenos Aires on Sunday.
In the US capital, he met with the president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, and participated in a conference with the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin. EFE
er-at/mcd
