‘I need your help’, Zelenskyy says in urgent appeal to US Congress
Washington, Mar 16 (EFE).- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the United States Congress on Wednesday to call for more US support in his country’s war against Russia.
Speaking via video link from Kyiv, Zelenskyy thanked the US for “overwhelming support” it had provided so far, but called on Washington to “do more” to help Kyiv repel the invasion launched by Russian president Vladimir Putin on February 24.
“Right now the future of our country is being decided. The destiny of our people. Whether Ukraine will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy,” Zelenskyy said.
“Russia has attacked not just our land, not just our cities, it went on a brutal offensive against our values, basic human values. It threw tanks and planes against our freedom, our right to live freely in our own country, to choose our own future,” he said.
Ukraine’s leader appealed to the US’ sense of history, and pointedly referred to Mount Rushmore, the monument bearing the faces of the country’s “prominent presidents” who “laid the foundations of the USA as it is today – democracy, independence, freedom and care for every person who lives honestly.”
“We in Ukraine want the same for our people,” he said.
“‘I have a dream’ – these words are known to each of you,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the famous speech by late civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
“Today I can say, ‘I have a need’, I need to protect our sky, I need your decision, your help.”
He urged Congress to remember some of the darkest chapters in the history of the USA, including Pearl Harbor and September 11, “when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields, when innocent people were attacked from the air.”
“Our country is experiencing the same every day. Right now, every day, every night, for 3 weeks. Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people.”
He repeated his request for Nato to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine to fight the kind of “terror that Europe has not seen for 80 years.”
While Nato has insisted it will not engage in the conflict directly, Zelenskyy called on Western allies to increase their military support for Ukraine and to “constantly” impose more economic sanctions “until the Russian war machine stops.” EFE
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