Zelenskyy says Putin is ‘inspired’ by Capitol Hill deadlock on Ukraine

The funding is part of a $111 billion supplemental that bundles aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and border security. Republican disagreements over border policy have kept the legislation from advancing, which has allowed Putin to see his “dreams come true,” Zelenskyy said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced Zelenskyy, and couched American aid for Ukraine as the key to supporting a global struggle for freedom against tyranny, a theme picked up by the Ukrainian leader.

“Ukraine matters profoundly to America’s security and to the trajectory of global security in the 21st century,” Austin said.

“We are determined to show the world that America will not flinch in our defense of freedom, if we do not stand up to the Kremlin’s aggression today, if we do not deter other would-be aggressors, we will only invite more aggression, more bloodshed and more chaos,” he said.

Zelenskyy reached back to the fall of the Soviet Union, making the case, as others have, that Putin is seeking to rebuild that old Soviet empire, piece by piece, beginning with Ukraine.

Putin, the former KGB agent and Soviet apparatchik, has said so himself at various times over the years, most famously at the Munich Security Conference in 2007 where he roundly rejected the Western-led international order and decried NATO expanding closer to Russia’s borders.

Zelenskyy on Monday said that “Russia’s war on Ukraine isn’t just about some old-fashioned dictatorship trying to settle scores, real or imagined. It’s Putin attacking that big shift that happened back in 1989.”

Putin’s “real target is the freedom people enjoy from Warsaw to Chicago to Yokohama, he is trying to make democratic countries lose hope, pushing the idea that dictatorships with a bit of market economy are winning this global faceoff.”

Zelenskyy will meet the White House on Tuesday, where President Joe Biden will “underscore the United States’ unshakable commitment” to Kyiv as it struggles to push Russian forces out of the 20 percent of Ukrainian territory they still control after the February 2022 full-scale invasion, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary said on Sunday.

“As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment,” Jean-Pierre said.