Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday welcomed the passage of $60 billion in aid for Ukraine by the U.S. House of Representatives but urged Washington to quickly turn the bill into law and proceed with the actual transfer of weapons, saying long-range arms and air defense systems were top priorities.
In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press", Zelenskiy said the passage of the bill would send a powerful message to Russia that Washington stands by Kyiv and that it would not be "a second Afghanistan."
"I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine and we will have a chance for victory," Zelenskiy said through an interpreter.
During the interview he repeatedly urged U.S. lawmakers to take swift action to pass the bill in the Senate. He said Ukraine urgently needed U.S. long-range weapons and air defense systems to turn around its fortunes on the battlefield.
"This is crucial. These are the priorities now," Zelenskiy said.
The U.S. House of Representatives, with broad bipartisan support, passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Aid for Ukraine had been held up for months, because of the opposition of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who urged Republican lawmakers to block it.
Almost 26 months since the 2022 invasion, Russia is slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine and has ramped up its bombardments of cities and towns behind the front lines amid a slowdown in Western military assistance.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders, from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, had been urging Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is set to begin considering the bill on Tuesday, with some preliminary votes that afternoon. Final passage is expected sometime next week, which would clear the way for Biden to sign it into law.
Zelenskiy declined to provide a timeline when asked how long it would take Ukraine to "turn the corner on Russia" and whether Kyiv would need as much aid this time next year.
He said Kyiv had lost the initiative in the fighting in the eastern part of the country, but that once the weapons arrive it will have the chance to stabilize the situation.
"Giving U.S. specific timeline of the war, well, it depends on how soon we get this aid," he said.
