Over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of fellow lawmakers to Ukraine, conveying a message of sympathy as the devastated city of Mariupol was evacuated.
On a surprise trip that was not announced until the next day, Pelosi and six other Democratic members of Congress met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for almost three hours late Saturday.
According to a video of the meeting in Kyiv posted by Pelosi’s office, Pelosi told Zelenskyy, “Our pledge is to be there for you until the fight is done.” “We are on the precipice of freedom, and your struggle is a struggle for all of us.” Thank you for your dedication to the cause of liberty.”
“You’re all welcome,” Zelenskyy said. Pelosi and the delegation headed to Poland after the high-level conference. According to CNBC, Pelosi said, “We were happy to transmit to him the message of unity from the United States Congress, a message of appreciation from the American people for his leadership, and admiration for the people of Ukraine for their courage.”
Our Congressional Delegation was honored to meet with @ZelenskyyUa in Kyiv to salute his leadership and courage, to commend the Ukrainian people for their outstanding defense of Democracy and to say that we are with you until victory is won. pic.twitter.com/zkc588Qcrv
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 1, 2022
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President Biden is requesting $33 billion in help for Ukraine, which has already received billions of dollars in humanitarian and military aid from the United States since Russia launched its invasion more than two months ago. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York was among Pelosi’s group.
On Twitter, the Queens pol, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote, “We continue to be inspired by the Ukrainian people and their courage in the face of incomprehensible hardships.” Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin paid a visit to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center right, and US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 30, 2022, in this photo published by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American official to visit Ukraine since the conflict began, and her visit represents a big show of solidarity for Ukraine’s fight against Russia. (Associated Press/Ukraine Presidential Press Office)
According to NPR, the US has contributed nearly $14 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia started an unjustified and barbaric invasion on February 24.
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Although vital weaponry has been provided, the US and its NATO allies have refrained from sending soldiers.
Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) remarked on Sunday that the violence in Ukraine was “not necessarily” a proxy conflict between the United States and Russia.
“If Russia can’t beat Ukraine with a far larger army, more modern weaponry, and a much-vaunted military,” Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We don’t want Russia to go into Moldova [or] a NATO country like Poland or Lithuania, or any other country like that,” he stated.
On Sunday, Denmark and Sweden accused Russia of infringing on their airspace.
Authorities told Agence-France Presse that a Russian spy plane was in Danish space “for a very brief moment.”
According to the BBC, both Denmark, a NATO member, and Sweden, which is considering joining the alliance, have summoned Russian diplomats to discuss the incident.
Meanwhile, evacuation efforts in Mariupol, the blockaded city in the southeast, have begun.
An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians were stranded in the Russian-controlled city, with 2,000 army and 1,000 civilians seeking refuge at a steelworks factory.
As of Sunday morning, about 100 persons in the first set of evacuees had managed to leave the dreadful conditions, Zelenskyy tweeted.
She is the first American president to visit Ukraine since the conflict began, and her presence represents a big show of support for the country’s fight against Russia. (Associated Press/Ukraine Presidential Press Office)
According to Maksym Kozytskyy, the regional governor of Lviv, actress Angelina Jolie paid a visit to displaced people in western Lviv on Saturday.
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She visited a boarding school and met with youngsters injured in Russia’s harsh strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in April, according to Kozytskyy.
Kozytskyy tweeted on the Telegram messaging app that Jolie, a United Nations special envoy for refugees, “was deeply moved by [the children’s] stories.” “One of the girls was even able to tell Ms. Jolie about a dream she’d experienced in private.”
