Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the United States for the first time since the war started in his country. He used this visit to meet with Biden and address the United States Congress.
“This struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live and then their children and grandchildren,” Zelenskyy told a joint session of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
“The world is too interconnected and interdependent to allow someone to stay aside and at the same time to feel safe when such a battle continues.”
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken earlier announced that the United States would send $1.85 billion in aid to Ukraine, including the Patriot air defense missile system.
Zelensky has asked many times for help from Western countries. Many GOP lawmakers are leery of providing a “blank check” to Ukraine, though they support the country.
Newsmax reports that the United States has sent about $50 billion in assistance to Kyiv as Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War Two drags on, killing tens of thousands of people, driving millions from their homes and reducing cities to ruins. If the aid is passed, the total wartime aid from the U.S. to Ukraine will be over $100 billion.
A group of Republicans are calling on an audit of the aid provided to Ukraine with a hefty U.S. dollar price tag. This group is led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is leading a resolution calling for an audit of the more than $54 billion in military and economic assistance approved by Congress since the Russian invasion.
“The American people, the taxpayers of this country, deserve to know where their money is going and how it is being spent,” the Georgia Republican said last month. “We’re ignoring the dangers happening in our country while we are completely protecting another country’s border and waging a proxy war with Russia.”
“Most of my constituents do not wish to have their money sent to Ukraine, especially not without oversight or an audit,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
“I will oppose giving more money to Ukraine while our own southern border remains open to an invasion led by drug cartels,” said Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill.
