President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers that Ukraine would lose the war to Russia if the United States curtailed the flow of aid and weapons.
President Biden told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday that the United States would be “staying with you” as its grinding war with Russia continues, even as a growing faction of the Republican Party has threatened to hold up aid that Mr. Zelensky said could cost his country the war.
Mr. Zelensky’s second wartime visit to Washington was spent visiting Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and, finally, the White House, in an extended appeal for more weapons. Along the way, he carried a grim warning. During a meeting at the Capitol with dozens of senators, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would lose the war without the aid, according to Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader.
At the White House, Mr. Biden said the United States would begin shipping over Abrams tanks, which the Ukrainians had long sought and were part of an existing pledge, next week. He also acknowledged that he had little choice but to have faith in a bipartisan breakthrough for continued support for Ukraine.
“I’m counting on the good judgment of the United States Congress,” Mr. Biden said. “There’s no alternative.”
Mr. Zelensky’s visit came as polls have shown a growing weariness over the war among the American public, and as dozens of Republicans say they are opposed to Mr. Biden’s latest request to Congress for $24 billion for additional aid for Ukraine. Mr. Biden has bucked Republican concerns, pledging that the United States — by far the largest military funder of Ukraine among its Western allies — will stay with Kyiv for the long haul.
Mr. Zelensky said he also received assurances from Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, in a private meeting that the House would continue to support the Ukrainian war effort. “He said that they will be on our side — it’s not simple — that they will support,” he said during a meeting with U.S. editors on Thursday night.
Congress has already approved $113 billion in military, economic, humanitarian and other aid for Ukraine, including around $70 billion for security, intelligence and other war fighting costs. Mr. Biden on Thursday released a new military package, worth $325 million, from the existing funding, including what officials called significant air-defense capabilities.
Mr. Zelensky had been hoping that the Americans would provide a powerful weapon called the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, which can strike targets 190 miles away with a warhead containing about 375 pounds of explosives. “We have to” have them, he said in the meeting with the editors. “Because we don’t have another way out.”
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, told reporters that Mr. Biden would not provide ATACMS now, but that he had not taken it off the table.
To keep ammunition flowing for Ukraine’s offensive operations, the Pentagon will also send more guided artillery rockets and artillery shells. Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would not stop its counteroffensive this winter and hoped to take advantage of what he considered Russian weaknesses. “I’m not the best person for military in the world,” he said, but President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia needed to “pause because he really lost people, professional army, lost. They’re dead.” “We can’t stop during the winter,” he said. “It’s difficult. But we have experience of previous year.” He predicted that Ukrainian forces would retake — would “de-occupy,” as he put it — Bakhmut and two more cities. “I will not tell you what cities, sorry,” Mr. Zelensky told the editors, saying the military had a “very comprehensive plan.”
Washington has changed in the nine months since Mr. Zelensky was last here to deliver a joint address to Congress. At the time, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brandished a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers on the front line.
Mr. Biden, who harbored serious doubts about Mr. Zelensky’s longevity as a leader at the outset of the invasion, had started to greet the Ukrainian leader like an old friend during regular phone calls. Mr. Biden secretly visited Kyiv in February.
These days, Republicans control the House, which has descended into chaos recently as lawmakers seem unwilling to agree on passing spending legislation that would avert a government shutdown. And insurgent members are threatening to relieve Mr. McCarthy of his gavel.
In a show of bipartisan comity, Mr. Zelensky, dressed in dark-olive fatigues, was escorted through the Capitol during his visit by Mr. Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
“American support for Ukraine is not charity,” Mr. McConnell, the minority leader, said in a statement. “It’s in our own direct interests — not least because degrading Russia helps to deter China.”
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Reporting was contributed by Karoun Demirjian, James C. McKinley Jr., John Ismay and Elisabeth Bumiller.
Erica L. Green is a correspondent in Washington covering domestic policy.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent, covering life in the Biden administration, Washington culture and domestic policy. She joined The Times in 2014.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 22, 2023, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: President Tells Zelensky the U.S. Stands With Kyiv. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
President Biden met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the Oval Office on Thursday. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
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