As Americans struggle to muddle through a cold winter and deal with rising prices of basic foodstuffs like eggs and chicken, persistently high gas prices, and a crash in value of most of their assets, everything from Bitcoin to bonds, stocks to real estate, the Uniparty is focused on what it’s determined is most important: funding the Ukraine’s fight against the Russians.
Senator Mitch McConnell laid that priority bare in a recent speech, saying: “Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans. That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”
And now it appears that it won’t be Santa coming to town for Christmas, but rather Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who the White House confirmed on Wednesday morning is on his way to the United States to discuss the ongoing war with Russia with President Joe Biden and ask for yet more American assistance.
Announcing the visit in a background call with the press, Team Biden said:
I’m glad to intrude on your evening with what I think is a pretty exciting piece of news, which is that at President Biden’s invitation, President Zelenskyy will be visiting Washington, D.C., tomorrow and will have the opportunity to engage here at the White House and then go up to Capitol Hill. And in doing so, this visit will underscore the United States’ enduring commitment to Ukraine.
President Biden and President Zelenskyy discussed the visit of President Zelenskyy to Washington when they spoke on the phone on December 11th. And the White House formally invited President Zelenskyy to come tomorrow, Wednesday the 21st, last Wednesday the 14th. And in doing so, indicated that we wanted to host him for a program here at the White House that would involve an extended sit-down with President Biden, a meeting with key members of President Biden’s national security team and Cabinet, an opportunity to address the press, and then an opportunity to go up to Capitol Hill to do a joint session of Congress.
The Ukrainian side — President Zelenskyy’s office formally accepted the invitation last Friday. And then the visit was finally confirmed on Sunday, just three days ago, at which point the White House engaged with the Speaker’s office to notify them that President Zelenskyy would be traveling here and that they could work to coordinate together with the White House and President Zelenskyy the joint session that will be scheduled for tomorrow evening.
We’ll have more details to share on the schedule soon. But again, just a quick overview: President Biden will first welcome President Zelenskyy at the White House for bilateral meetings. There will be the press conference and the opportunity to address members of the public. And then there will be an address by President Zelenskyy to a joint session of Congress demonstrating the strong bipartisan support for Ukraine. And then President Zelenskyy will return, after just a few short hours on the ground, to his people in Ukraine.
We’re looking forward to having President Zelenskyy back at the White House for his second visit but his first visit since the start of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for some time. And tomorrow is actually the 300th day since Russia brutally invaded Ukraine in an all-out assault with the goal of wiping its neighbor off the map and subjecting the Ukrainian people to Russian dominion.
Giving slighlty more (though not much more) detail on what Biden and Zelensky would be discussing, the Administration also said “In the meeting tomorrow, President Biden will have the opportunity with President Zelenskyy to have an in-depth strategic discussion on the way ahead on the battlefield; on the capabilities and training that the U.S. and our allies will continue to provide to Ukraine; on the sanctions and export controls that we have imposed and will continue to tighten and reinforce that have placed significant costs on Russia’s economy and Russia’s defense industrial base; and on the economic and energy sector assistance as well as the humanitarian assistance we’re providing to make life better for the people of Ukraine.”
Further, Team Biden’s statement on the Zelensky visit said “The visit will underscore the United States’ steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, including through the provision of economic, humanitarian, and military assistance.“
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