Ukraine’s first lady beseeched lawmakers Wednesday to ramp up US support for Ukraine, displaying images of civilian victims of Russian airstrikes and warning that Moscow’s invading forces are “destroying our people.”
“This is Liza. I met this girl before Christmas,” Olena Zelenska told members of Congress, remembering the smiling youngster as a “cheerful, playful little rascal.”
“Liza was only four years old, she’s no longer with us,” the first lady went on, as brutal pictures of the child after she was killed earlier this month by a Russian missile were shown on a screen.
Zelenska then narrated images of other children and families slaughtered by Russian forces during the nearly five-month-old invasion, including 16 men and women who were killed in an attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in late June, as lawmakers shook their heads sadly.
One victim Zelenska highlighted, 96-year-old Borys Romanchenko, had survived four Nazi concentration camps — but could not escape Russian shelling in Kharkiv.
“An unprovoked invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country, Russia is destroying our people,” said the first lady, noting that Moscow has launched more than 3,000 cruise missiles since the invasion began on Feb. 24.
“These are Russia’s ‘Hunger Games,’ hunting for peaceful people in peaceful cities of Ukraine,” she added. “They will never broadcast this on their news – that’s why I’m showing it to you here.”
Throughout her remarks Zelenska emphasized that Ukraine appreciated the aid Washington has provided so far, saying “We are grateful, really grateful that the United States stands with us in this fight for our shared values. of human life and independence.”
However, she warned, her husband’s government needs more.
“I am asking for something now I would never want to ask. I am asking for weapons,” she said. “Weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else’s land but to protect one’s home and the right to wake up alive in that home.”
Specifically, Zelenska asked for “air defense systems” to combat Russia missile strikes before noting that Congress will soon leave for its “normal” August recess.
“It is precisely this normalcy that Ukrainians are deprived of right now,” she said. “Will my son be able to return to his school in the fall? I don’t know, like millions of mothers in Ukraine. Will my daughter be able to go to university and at the beginning of the academic year experience student life? I cannot answer.
“We would have answers if we had air defense systems.”
As her husband did in his own remarks to Congress March 16, Zelenska referenced past attacks on America, saying the US “unfortunately knows from its own experience what terrorist attacks are [and] has always sought to defeat terror.”
She closed by beseeching Congress to act quickly, saying the two nations could win a “joint victory in the name of life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.”
“This is what I’m asking for and what my husband is asking for, not as a presidential couple, but as parents and the children of their parents,” she continued. “Because we want every father and every mother to be able to tell their child, ‘Go to sleep peacefully. There will be no more airstrikes, no more missile strikes.’ Is this too much to wish for?”
Zelenska signed off by intoning “Glory to Ukraine” before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced her to members of congressional leadership, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
The first lady’s approximately 12-minute speech follows repeated calls by her husband and top officials in Kyiv for the US to send more help to the war-torn country.
Ahead of her remarks, Zelensky said he expected “significant results” from his wife’s meetings in Washington.
“I strongly believe it will be heard by those people responsible for making decisions in the United States,” he said of his wife’s address to Congress.
On Tuesday, Zelenska was gifted a bouquet of flowers by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden as they welcomed her to the White House.
“First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska embodies the same tenacity and resilience as the country she hails from,” Biden tweeted on Tuesday. “It was an honor for Jill and me to welcome her to the White House this afternoon.”
The two first ladies and delegations from both countries sat down for a meeting in the White House Blue Room soon after.
On Monday, Zelenska met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Monday that Blinken “emphasized the United States’ comprehensive and enduring commitment to support Ukraine’s victory in Russia’s unjust and unprovoked war.”
The pair also “spoke about the immense and growing human costs of Russia’s full-scale invasion.”
In the latest upcoming package of military and humanitarian support for Ukraine, the US will be sending four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, also known as HIMARS, Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin said Wednesday. This brings the total of HIMARS in the nation supplied by the US to 16, per a countby ABC News.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, more than 5,000 civilians — including several hundred children — have been killed. As many as 1.6 million Ukrainians have been forcibly deported from their homes to Russian territory, according to State Department estimates.
