With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington today—he’s doing the grand tour of Capitol Hill, the White House, and the Pentagon—the administration is jacking up the pressure on Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s latest supplemental spending request for more military aid to Ukraine. “It [is] really a critical time as we head into the fall,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said yesterday, adding the White House had encouraged Zelensky to meet with members of Congress to make his case for continued military support, given opposition voiced by some Republicans, according to Reuters.
“If you think that the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, just ponder how exorbitantly higher it would be in blood and treasure if we just walk away and let him [Putin] take Ukraine,” he claimed. “Then the cost of defending sovereign integrity and territory, believe me, gets a whole lot more expensive in both blood and treasure, including American blood.”
