(Berlin) Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Sunday that a drop in US support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian army would be a “bad signal”, while a new US aid package is currently blocked in Congress .
“US passivity or lack of support would send the wrong signal. This would not be fair to anyone,” said the Ukrainian president in an interview broadcast on Sunday by the German public television channel ZDF.
“The United States is our number one partner,” he stressed.
After delivering tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden’s administration exhausted its funds at the end of 2023.
The president therefore asked Congress to approve some 61 billion additional dollars, but negotiations with the Republicans, which also concern immigration, are bogged down.
The last delivery of American military aid to Ukraine was announced on December 27, and the White House has said repeatedly that without a budget extension, there would be no more.
Faced with this blockage, Volodymyr Zelensky called on Germany to use its economic weight to mobilize its European partners in order to fill the gap.
“Many countries have important economic relations with Germany and their economies depend on Germany’s decisions because it has a strong economy,” Zelensky said.
“Germany can succeed in consolidating [le soutien] of the EU,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz already called on his European partners on Wednesday to intensify their commitments in terms of armaments.
“Europe must do more to support Ukraine in the defense of its own country,” he told the weekly Die Zeit on Wednesday, estimating that the contributions planned by European nations for 2024 so far were “not high enough”.
Concerning the United States, Mr. Zelensky wanted to be optimistic on Sunday regarding the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump, considered less favorable to support for Kyiv, in the next American presidential election.
“I don’t think all U.S. policy depends on one person,” he said, believing that “the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans support Ukraine.”