Zelensky will address US senators before voting on aid to Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky will make a direct appeal to US senators on Tuesday to remind lawmakers ahead of a key vote what is at stake if they fail to quickly approve emergency military aid for his country.

Republican support for funding Ukraine’s war effort is waning and an emergency funding package is stuck in Congress. As the Democratic-led Senate is set to vote Wednesday on whether to approve more than $61 billion in Ukraine-targeted aid as part of a $106 billion national security package, said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and leader of the majority, that he informs Mr. Zelensky legislators.

The Ukrainian leader is expected to give senators updates on the status of the fighting and stress the urgency of maintaining U.S. financial and military support in a confidential video call on Tuesday.

‘America’s national security is at stake’ Mr. Schumer said from the Senate floor on Monday evening.

“If Ukraine falls, Putin will continue,” he added. “Autocrats around the world will be emboldened. Democracy, this great and noble experiment, will enter an age of decline.”

Zelensky’s speech to senators – a day after the White House warned that the United States would soon run out of money to send weapons to his country – comes at perhaps the most uncertain moment for Ukraine since the first chaotic months of the war .

Ukraine urgently needs more ammunition and other weapons to try to turn the tide on the battlefield. The country’s counter-offensive against entrenched Russian forces in southern Ukraine has so far failed to achieve its objectives, and Moscow’s forces have gone on the offensive in the east.

Mr Zelenskiy has recognized the scale of the challenges facing Ukraine almost two years into the war – from the struggle to make progress on the battlefield to the need to improve soldier recruitment and training as losses mount.

Domestic politics in Ukraine are beginning to reassert themselves, with local media fixated on possible signs of division between Zelenskiy’s government and the military leadership. But American politics has also taken a leading role as a growing group of Republicans have expressed concerns about providing more financial support to Zelensky’s government.

Republicans twice refused to include military aid to Ukraine in emergency legislation to keep the government funded this fall, insisting that any money should be tied to border security.

On Monday, Shalanda D. Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said: wrote an open letter against House and Senate leaders of both parties, who said cutting off the flow of money and weapons would “undermine Ukraine on the battlefield.”

“We’re out of money – and running out of time,” she wrote.

The warning from Washington reverberated in Ukraine, where officials have been calling for continued military aid for months.

The alternative would be “catastrophic,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said on social media on Tuesday.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made it clear that he is investing in a long war: nearly a third of the country’s spending next year – roughly $109 billion – will be spent on “national defense,” according to a budget he signed into law last week.

Despite the bloody fighting, the front line has remained largely static over the past year. Although the Ukrainian forces have regained little ground, they have expended enormous amounts of ammunition holding the line.

Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly warned of the risks that declining U.S. military aid would pose while simultaneously looking for ways to boost domestic arms production. In recent weeks, he has expressed concern that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could distract allies and potentially undermine support for Ukraine.

“Our deliveries have decreased,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters on November 16, referring specifically to 155-millimeter shells, saying that “they were really slowing down.”

He has also worked to send a clear message to the Biden administration that his administration is working hard to tackle issues like corruption — a long-standing problem in Ukraine that has been cited by some Republicans as an argument against further aid .

Mr. Zelensky replaced his defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, in September amid revelations of suspected embezzlement in military procurement. Later that month, the White House gave Ukraine a list of “priority reforms” to implement – ​​namely strengthening anti-corruption efforts – indicating that future aid would be tied to implementing the changes.

Some of these efforts were on public display Tuesday in Kiev, where officials held a conference on anti-graft policies in the Ukrainian government titled “Integrity: The Future of Ukrainian Society.”

Anastasia Radina, head of the anti-corruption committee in the Ukrainian parliament, was among about a hundred attendees. She said there was no risk of corruption surrounding the donation of weapons from allies, and described a barcode system used to track the weapons.

Ms. Radina also said she visited Washington last month to discuss anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine with members of Congress.

“I see that the partners are asking us to do exactly what the Ukrainian people want us to do,” she said, adding that “the partners are not asking for anything other than what our own people want.”

Andrew E. Kramer reporting contributed.