(Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in a phone call on Thursday that it is crucial that Congress quickly approves a new military aid package for Kiev.
Republican Chairman Mike Johnson has for months held up a bill that would provide $60 billion in military and financial aid to Ukraine.
“Expeditious passage of U.S. aid to Ukraine through Congress is critical. We recognize that there are different views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor,” Zelenskiy said. on X.
Ukrainian forces are taking a back seat on the battlefield, facing shortages of artillery supplies, while US aid is being held up in Congress and the European Union is failing to deliver on time the ammunition it previously promised.
In a statement, Zelenskiy said he had briefed Johnson on the battlefield situation and also spoke of “the dramatic increase in Russian air terror.”
Last Friday, Russia carried out its biggest airstrike on Ukraine’s energy system since the invasion in February 2022, damaging power stations at a major dam and causing power outages for more than a million people.
Moscow has described its recent attacks as part of a series of “revenge attacks” in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian regions. Russia has increased its use of harder-to-stop ballistic missiles. It denies targeting civilians, although many have been killed in the attacks.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Peter Graff)
