GOP senators say Zelenskyy's attempts to convince them in person to keep supporting Ukraine did not work
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walking through the US Capitol between meetings with Congressional leadership on December 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.
- Zelenskyy met with GOP senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson during a closed meeting on Tuesday.
- He tried to convince them to back extra funding for Ukraine, citing its progress fending off Russia.
- Republicans who spoke afterwards were unmoved — and instead focused demands around US border control.
Republican senators said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for more aid failed to convince them.
Zelenskyy issued the appeal during a 30-minute closed-door meeting in US Capitol with Republican senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday, per CNN.
In a post on X after the meeting, Zelenskyy said he informed Johnson and the senators of Ukraine's progress holding off Russia's invasion.
He said that included "liberating half of the land occupied by Russia since 2022, winning the battle for the Black Sea, and reforming the country to make it self-sufficient in the future."
But statements from the lawmakers after suggested that Zelenskyy did not get far.
They generally stuck to their view that they wouldn't pass more aid for Ukraine unless the White House goes along with their demands for stricter measures at the US-Mexico border.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told CNN: "I don't know whether he moved the needle at all," referring to Zelenskyy.
He criticized pointing to the White House's "unwillingness" to consider the "border component" of the GOP's funding plan.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that the reluctance to support new funding was retribution for the Biden administration ignoring GOP concerns on the border.
He said an "obsession with not addressing border security after three years, not doing anything meaningful, has caught up with them."
"Your policy choices are biting you in the ass," he added, per Roll Call.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma echoed his colleagues' statements.
"There's zero chance that an aid package to Ukraine and to Israel will pass the House without real meaningful – real meaningful – border security," Mullin told CNN. He said House Republicans were on the same page.
Johnson, the speaker, joined senators in saying the "first condition" on any Ukraine aid package would be "our own national security," per C-SPAN.
Two other conditions he cited were "clarity" about the Biden administration's strategy in Ukraine and "proper oversight" of the spending of "precious taxpayer dollars."
Last Wednesday, all Senate Republicans, plus Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, voted against a $110 billion package proposed by President Joe Biden, which allotted $61 billion for Ukraine alongside funds for Israel and aid for Gaza, per Reuters.
The White House has said the funding for Ukraine is existential — claiming it would lose the war without it, a view with which many military experts agree.
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