Zelensky has a message for Republicans who went on vacation without approving Ukraine aid

9 months ago 10

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On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) gaveled the House of Representatives out for a two-week recess — without holding a vote on a foreign aid package that already passed the US Senate.

Along with funding for Israel and Taiwan, that bill included approximately $60 billion in critically needed aid for Ukraine that would help the US' ally as it struggles to defend its eastern territories against Russian incursion. While speaking at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a pointed message for American lawmakers who are now on vacation for the remainder of the month.''

"Please remember everyone that dictators do not go on vacation," Zelensky said, according to a tweet from New York Times reporter Peter Baker.

Zelensky's remarks in Munich come as Ukraine's military has been recently forced to surrender the city of Avdiivka to Russia in order to avoid encirclement after defending it for the past four months. The Ukrainian leader blamed his army's struggles on a lack of ammunition, which US funding would have provided.

"Dear friends, unfortunately keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war," Zelensky said at the conference. He added that "the self-weakening of democracy over time undermines our joint results," saying "the longer this Russian aggression against the rules-based world order continues, the greater are the changes it provokes."

In addition to Zelensky, the Biden administration also blasted House Republicans for failing to act on the bipartisan Ukraine aid package that passed the Senate with 22 Republican votes this week.

"Every day that Speaker Johnson causes our national security to deteriorate, America loses. And every day that he puts off a clean vote, congressional Republicans’ standing with the American people plunges," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, according to the Hill. "Running away for an early vacation only worsens both problems."

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