WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that the tens of billions of dollars of aid it had approved to help it fight a Russian invasion was not charity, but an investment in global security.

In his first visit out of his country since the war began in February, Zelenskiy told lawmakers in the soaring House of Representatives chamber that he hoped they would continue to support Ukraine on a bipartisan basis - a major point as Republicans are due to take the majority in the House on Jan. 3.

"Your money is not charity," Zelenskiy said, clad in the khaki fatigues that have been his public uniform throughout the 300 days of conflict. "It is an investment in the global security and democracy."

Following a meeting at the White House with Democratic President Joe Biden, Zelenskiy's speech needed to resonate with House Republicans, who have voiced increasing skepticism about continuing to send so much aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskiy's arrival was greeted with multiple raucous ovations in the nearly full chamber. Three members held up a large Ukrainian flag as he walked in.

"It is a great honor for me to be at the U.S. Congress and speak to you and all Americans. Against all doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking," said Zelenskiy.

"We defeated Russia in the battle for the minds of the world," he said.

Zelenskiy joined a long list of world leaders to address joint meetings of the Senate and House, a tradition that began in 1874 with a visit by Hawaiian King Kalakaua and included almost legendary wartime visits by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as kings, queens and one pope.

House members and senators from both parties leapt repeatedly to their feet to cheer parts of Zelenskiy's speech in English such as, "Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender," as he likened his country's battle against Moscow's forces to great battles of World War Two and even the American Revolution.

There are no signs of peace talks to end the war and both Russia and Ukraine have signaled a willingness to keep fighting, although Zelenskiy said he discussed a 10-point Ukrainian peace formula with Biden.

"I'm glad that President Biden supported our peace initiative today. Each of you today ladies and gentlemen can assist in the implementation to ensure that American leadership remains solid, bicameral, and bipartisan," Zelenskiy said to the lawmakers.

PURSE STRINGS

Planning for Zelenskiy's speech began in October, according to an aide to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she met with Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Pelosi was attending the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform in Zagreb, Croatia, at the time.

Exactly 300 days after Russian troops invaded and amid intensified rocket attacks that have left Ukrainian cities in ruins, Zelenskiy arrived knowing that the Senate and House control America's purse strings.

His timing was perfect, as Congress is on the verge of approving an additional $44.9 billion in new emergency military and economic assistance, on top of some $50 billion already sent to Ukraine this year.

Daniel Fried, former U.S. ambassador to Poland and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Zelenskiy's trip demonstrated that he and Biden share a belief that the United States, despite its faults, is leader of the free world.

Zelenskiy, Fried said, "didn’t go to Berlin, Brussels, London or Paris" for his first trip abroad since the start of the war.

The 44-year-old Zelenskiy, a former comedian and actor, also visited Washington on a day that the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed a new ambassador to Russia.

The optics of Zelenskiy's welcome as a defender of democracy carried a message far deeper than military aid. It was meant to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States and its NATO allies remain steadfastly behind Ukraine, despite recent signs of impatience among some Republican lawmakers over the rising cost.

For Zelenskiy, whose wartime olive fatigues have become globally recognized, the House overlooked a rule that normally requires men to wear a jacket and tie inside the chamber.

PATRIOT MISSILES

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said a U.S. promise to provide the Patriot surface-to-air missile defense system was an important step in creating an effective air shield.

"This is the only way that we can deprive the terrorist state of its main instrument of terror - the possibility to hit our cities, our energy," Zelenskiy told a White House news conference, standing next to U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Patriot system is "a defensive system, it's not escalatory, it's defensive" Biden told reporters. "We'd love not to have them used, just stop the attacks."

Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian officials have long pleaded with allies to provide more anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems to help counter Russian missile strikes against power generating plants and other critical infrastructure.

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had earlier said the United States would provide $1.85 billion in additional military assistance for Ukraine, including a transfer of the Patriot Air Defense System.

The Patriot is considered to be one of the most advanced U.S. air defense systems and offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles. It typically includes launchers along with radar and other support vehicles.

The United States has sent about $50 billion in assistance to the Kyiv government as it defends itself against an invasion by Russia that began 10 months ago.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said a clash with hostile forces in Ukraine has been inevitable.

"It became obvious that clashes with those forces, including in Ukraine, were inevitable. The question was only when it would happen," he said at a yearend Defense Ministry meeting.

Putin said military operations always go hand in hand with tragedies and losses.

"We understand that perfectly well, we realize that, but because it’s inevitable, better today than tomorrow," the president said.

Putin also brought up the subject of the manifestations of neo-Nazism and fascism in Ukraine. The head of state said Russia also has them, but the government cracks down on them.

"Every country has nationalists, and we do. But we are fighting the manifestations of neo-Nazism and fascism. We do not elevate them to the rank of national policy, but in Ukraine they do, everyone pretends not to notice it," he said.

"Nationalism might seem a good thing. They fight for national interests, and no one notices that it’s done on the basis of the fascist, neo-Nazi ideology. People walk around with swastikas in the centers of major cities, including in the capital, and it may seem that’s the way everyone wants it," the president said. "It’s similar to how, in the early 2000s, they used international terrorists to fight Russia, and didn’t give a damn, sorry about ill manners, that it was a terrorist, an internationally recognized terrorist. They didn’t give a damn because they used it to fight Russia. Same here, neo-Nazis are used to fight Russia and they don’t give a damn that these people are neo-Nazis. The main thing is that they fight Russia. But we do care."

** Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has pointed to the presence of NATO staff officers and other specialists on the front lines in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, on top of almost $100 billion worth of pledged weapons and supplies from the bloc's members. 

“Russia’s armed forces are presently facing allied forces of the West,” Shoigu said on Wednesday at a meeting of the top military commanders in Moscow. “The US and its allies supply the Kiev regime with weapons, train its soldiers, provide intelligence, dispatch advisers and mercenaries, and wage an information and sanctions war against us.”

Shoigu said NATO countries have so far expended more than $97 billion on weapons deliveries, in order to make up for what he described as “considerable losses” inflicted on the Ukrainian military by Russian forces. NATO “staff officers, artillery personnel and other specialists are present in the zone of combat operations,” the defense minister added. 

More than 500 satellites are working to provide intelligence to the Ukrainian military, of which only 70 are purely military and the rest are dual-purpose, according to Shoigu. 

Multiple Western officials, from US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on down, have said that they are backing Ukraine in order to weaken Russia and that Moscow must not be allowed to win – while insisting they are not a party to the conflict. The US military alone has committed $20 billion in “security assistance” to Kiev since February.

While the initial weapons shipments included small arms and portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, NATO countries have since sent Ukraine tanks, fighter jets, drones, rocket and tube artillery, as well as more complex air defenses. Russia has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that such shipments could lead to a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO, and accused the West of prolonging the conflict and causing needless deaths in Ukraine.

Reuters/RT/TASS