Ukraine 1st lady wants more U.S. arms to fight Russia: ‘Is this too much to ask for?’ – National

Ukraine first girl Olena Zelenska appealed nose to nose to U.S. lawmakers Wednesday for extra air protection techniques to assist guard her nation’s skies, in an unsparing Capitol deal with displaying the blood-stained child strollers and small crumpled our bodies left by Russian bombardment.

“We wish no extra airstrikes. No extra missile strikes,” Zelenska informed Republican and Democratic congressional members in a speech capping a go to to Washington within the stead of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Is that this an excessive amount of to ask for?”

“That is what I’m asking for and what my husband is asking for,” she stated from the stage of the Capitol’s congressional auditorium, displaying pictures of carnage on an overhead display screen that had lawmakers shaking their heads on the scenes. “As dad and mom.”

Zelenska’s Washington conferences with first girl Jill Biden, President Joe Biden and different high administration figures have been amongst her highest-profile occasions of the struggle. She spent the primary two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in late February in seclusion along with her two youngsters, for security.

Her husband has remained in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, by way of the struggle. He made a strong deal with by video to lawmakers in the identical auditorium earlier this 12 months, drawing repeated standing ovations.

Zelenska repeatedly thanked lawmakers and Biden for the billions of {dollars} in arms and different help the U.S. has delivered to Ukraine to assist it battle Russian forces and warplanes. She referred to as for extra anti-air protection to assist repel what have been never-ending Russian missile and airstrikes which have killed numerous civilians and leveled some Ukrainian cities.

She confirmed images of a smiling, paint-smeared 4-year-old lady, Liza Dmytrieva, whom the primary girl had occurred to satisfy earlier than Christmas. The display screen subsequent confirmed an overturned child carriage with blood caking on the sidewalk beneath it, after an airstrike killed the lady and badly injured her mom final week.

Zelenska confirmed and informed the tales of different Ukrainian youngsters killed or maimed by airstrikes or shot to loss of life as their households tried to flee with them.

“Our household represents the entire world for us, and we do every little thing to protect it,” Zelenska stated. “We cry once we can’t put it aside. And we stay utterly damaged when our world is destroyed by struggle.”

The speech was an sudden change in tone for a go to whose earlier public moments had included receiving a bouquet from Joe Biden on the White Home, an award ceremony, and a go to to a neighborhood monument for Ukrainians.

“We’ve seen from Ukrainian management their braveness but in addition their no-nonsense direct enchantment and laying out the brutal mentality of Mr. Putin,” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, stated as lawmakers walked out.

Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate minority chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and different high leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers listened.