Ukraine’s Zelenskyy faced doubters and detractors in US and EU
Both Congress and the European Council failed to approve military funds, but the EU did issue a powerful political message in an invitation to Ukraine to open membership talks
Ukraine’s president spent the 94th week of Russia’s war rallying support on both sides of the Atlantic, as his troops continued to defend against constant Russian assaults to the east and south.
Although battle lines have hardly moved in weeks, Russia is trying to take the initiative after a Ukrainian summer counteroffensive put it on defence.
Zelenskyy’s task was to ensure Ukraine had money and weapons to continue the fight next year, but a trip to Washington DC on Tuesday went unrewarded after a meeting with Congressional Republicans failed to convince them to release $61.4bn in military and financial aid.
The US Senate voted 49-51 against a $110.5bn measure brought forward by the Democrats. It also provided $14bn for military aid to Israel.
Even if it does pass in the Senate, the measure still has to meet with House approval, where Republicans also hold the majority and hold Ukraine funds hostage to a domestic agenda including abortion restrictions.
"What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win and with none of the answers that I think the American people are owed," House Speaker Mike Johnson said after meeting with Zelenskiy.
"(It) is practically impossible - even if we reach an agreement - to craft it, get it through the Senate, get to the House, before Christmas," Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in the US Capitol.
"Make no mistake, today's vote is going to be long remembered. History is going to judge harshly those who turned their backs on freedom's cause," Biden said in remarks at the White House.
Earlier Biden told Congressional Repubicans what was at stake other than border security and abortions, as he stood beside Zelenskyy.
“Ukraine will emerge from this war proud, free and firmly rooted in the West – unless we walk away. But without supplemental funding, we’re rapidly coming to the end of our ability to help Ukraine respond to the urgent operational demands that it has. Putin is banking on the US failing to deliver for Ukraine. We must, we must, we must prove him wrong,” Biden said.
According to documents seen by Reuters, while in Washington Zelenskyy asked for new weapons – F-18 Hornet fighter jets, Apache and Blackhawk attack helicopters, among others. He also asked for Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) air defence systems to supplement Ukraine’s existing umbrella of medium and low-range systems.
As part of the effort to convince Republicans to help Ukraine, the US intelligence community released a report that revealed how much the country had achieved with the $111bn in aid the US has already provided.
Ukraine had destroyed nine tenths of the force that invaded it in February last year, the report said, costing Russia 315,000 dead and injured troops from an original force of 360,000, and destroying 2,200 out of 3,500 tanks and 4,400 out of 13,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
Russia was continuing to suffer high losses in Avdiivka, a city it has been trying intensively to capture since early October.
US National Security Council spokesperson Andrienne Watson reportedly said Russian forces had suffered more than 13,000 casualties there in nine weeks.
Ukrainian estimates run higher. The commander of Ukrainian ground forces Alexander Syrskyi said in November alone, Ukrainian forces “destroyed” 11,000 Russian troops and 130 tanks in the east.
To regain the initiative in the east, Russian forces were sending their troops in en masse, he said. “In the east, the loss of Russian casualties is approximately eight times higher than the loss of the Ukrainian defense forces. Despite this, the Russian occupiers are betting on human resources,” he said.
Zelenskyy didn’t go home entirely empty handed. The US Pentagon announced $200mn in new weapons including air-to-air missiles on December 6. Norway promised additional aid worth $275mn. And Denmark said it would seek parliamentary approval for $1.1bn in new funds.
The biggest package may have come from Britain, which together with Norway announced a new maritime capability coalition to strengthen the Ukrainian navy. The UK was to provide two Sandown minesweepers from its own fleet to help protect Ukraine’s grain corridor in the Black Sea.
Together with Norway it would provide 20 Viking amphibious vehicles and 23 landing craft. “Ukraine’s economy continues to be impacted by Putin’s blockade in the Black Sea, which has significantly reduced the country’s ability to move vital exports by sea,” said the announcement.
Ukraine also had a political prize to collect in Europe, where government leaders voted to invite Ukraine and Moldova to open membership talks with the bloc, despite objections from Hungary.
On December 11 Zelenskyy had what he later described as a “frank” conversation with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who has emerged as a possible deal-breaker at the summit. The setting was the inauguration of Argentina’s president Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, where Zelenskyy also met with the leaders of Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador.
Orban on December 13 reaffirmed his opposition to inviting Ukraine to start membership talks with the EU. "Considering the numbers, economic analyses and taking it seriously that talks (with Ukraine) would aim to grant membership ... then we must say that this thought at the moment is absurd, ridiculous and not serious," Orban said.
But European Parliament and the European Commission, both of which will undergo changes next year, had lobbied hard for the approval. “There’s a feeling it’s going to happen, that there’s no going backwards,” said Socialist Euro-parliamentarian Nikos Papandreou.
“[Fellow MEPs] don’t think there will be another chance because we don’t know what the political powers will be [next year]. It’s now or never.”
Europe will hold a parliamentary election next June. The next European Commisison is due to be appointed next October.
"I cannot imagine, I don't even want to talk about the devastating consequences that will occur should the [European] Council fail to make this decision," Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba had said, calling it "the mother of all decisions".