Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week expressed certainty that the United States would come through on providing billions more in aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and insisted that his country would not lose, the Associated Press reported.
While giving an end-of-year press conference in Kyiv on December 19, Zelensky dismissed the notion that Russian forces are ending 2023 on top after repelling Ukraine’s counteroffensive and increasing its military production.
The Ukrainian president insisted that Moscow failed to achieve the goals it set out for the year. However, Zelensky conceded that his country still faces many challenges after Ukraine expended the military hardware supplied by the West on a counteroffensive that failed to make a dent in the 600-mile front line.
Congress left Washington for the holiday recess without securing a deal to provide another $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The Pentagon last Monday warned that it is nearly out of money to assist Ukraine while the EU announced that it was pushing its plan to give Ukraine $54.5 billion until the new year after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed the plan.
However, President Zelensky insisted that he wasn’t concerned.
He told reporters that he was confident that the United States would not let Ukraine down and that what Kyiv has requested from the US would be fulfilled.
With Russian forces outnumbering those in Ukraine, Western support for the war remains crucial to Ukraine’s survival against its better-armed opponent.
While Zelensky remained confident about receiving military assistance from NATO member states, he appeared less optimistic about his country’s chances of joining the alliance.
He told reporters that Ukraine has not yet been invited to join NATO and any “signals about our membership” have thus far been “nonsense.” He said not one member country has presented a solid offer for Ukraine to join the alliance.
