- Zelenskyy is meeting with Congress and Biden in DC this week as US aid to Ukraine is at risk.
- He told senators that Russia's threat to other nations will only grow bigger if it takes Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington DC this week, putting pressure on Congress as time runs out for a deal on new US aid.
And as Republicans continue to bar any efforts to pass an assistance package, Zelenskyy is warning that the threat Russia poses to the rest of the world will only grow larger if Russian President Vladimir Putin is able to win the war.
On Tuesday morning, Zelenskyy met with US senators to advocate for new US assistance before the end of the year. He told both Republican and Democratic Senators that if Ukraine loses, the outcome won't lower Russia's threat level or satiate Putin's hunger.
Rather, the risk of Russia attacking other neighbors, including possibly some NATO members, will only grow larger, the Ukrainian leader said.
Further Russian aggression could demand more from the US, which would further strain America's already depleted ammunition and weapons stockpiles.
Zelenskyy tells us that if Ukraine falls to Putin, the risk from Russia gets larger, not smaller. Many other nations will need help to repel an empowered Russia. pic.twitter.com/xa2YCz1HAc
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) December 12, 2023
Zelenskyy is also meeting with Biden later on Tuesday as the White House presses Congress to pass new US aid before the House and Senate break for holiday recess.
The Ukrainian President's warnings — and his pleas for more support — come as the war settles into an unstable stalemate as Ukraine's lukewarm counteroffensive comes to a close.
The brutal war of attrition fought has depleted manpower, resources, and ammunition. And as Russia launches renewed offensives around Avdiivka and other sectors of the front, there's potential that without US aid, Ukraine won't be able to hold its defenses through the winter. In fact, without that critical US support, Ukraine could very well lose the war altogether, experts say.
"Zelenskyy is arriving at a difficult time for Ukraine," David Silbey, an associate professor of history at Cornell University specializing in military history, defense policy and battlefield analysis, said in an emailed assessment.
"Without that Western aid, Ukraine's ability to continue fighting is deeply in question," he said. "They simply don't have the resources to build the massive amount of munitions needed to continue fighting. Zelenskyy is talking for his life and his country's."
Like Zelenskyy, experts have also warned that letting Ukraine fall could create a more dangerous Russia.
"Every time the Russians think that they have 'won' in a conflict under Putin — Georgia 2008, Ukraine 2014, Syria 2015 — they learn something about us — and they become overconfident in their abilities and in a few years they try bigger and bolder operations," Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted on social media.
Republicans have been holding any new aid hostage over the past few weeks, demanding it be included in a package with stricter border and immigration policies that are inconsistent with Biden's agenda.
Last week, Biden said he was willing to "make significant compromises on the border" in order to get the roughly $111 billion aid package, which includes assistance to both Ukraine and Israel, passed, but the congressional impasse remains.