Ukraine ambassador asks United States for increase in weapons, aid

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. urged senators on Monday night for an increase in military assistance and an escalation of sanctions on Moscow as her country braces for the fall of its capital city to Russian forces.

The envoy, Oksana Markarova, told a bipartisan group of senators that the Ukrainian military is in serious need of supplies and equipment, including lethal arms, according to lawmakers who attended the closed-door meeting. Markarova told senators that Ukraine was close to running out of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

“This is the most dangerous moment since the Cuban missile crisis,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said after meeting with Markarova. “This is a moment for us to put aside our differences.”

“We work actively with the administration, the president and also with Congress on getting more weapons, so we need more weapons,” she told reporters after the talks. “And we are not asking anyone to fight for us, we are defending our country ourselves. But we need all the support that all civilized world can give us to actually continue effectively fighting, and also sanctions.” Markarova went onto say.

Markarova said she also told lawmakers that Russia is “essentially killing innocent civilians,” comparing the nation’s actions to Nazi Germany in WWII. “Today they shot again into not only residential areas but also the orphanages and schools and kindergartens, horrible, they have to pay the price,” she said. “They have to be isolated.”

She also accused Russia of using a thermobaric weapon, known as a vacuum bomb, in violation of the Geneva Convention. “They used the vacuum bomb today,” said Markarova. “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”

President Joe Biden’s top national-security officials told senators in a classified briefing later Monday night that the worst is yet to come for Kyiv: new satellite images show a large Russian convoy heading toward the city.

“Russia can hold on a lot longer than Ukraine can,” said Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “This is dire.”

After the classified briefing, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Russian President Vladimir Putin is laying the groundwork for a “medieval siege” of Kyiv.

The twin meetings on Capitol Hill came as lawmakers are putting together an emergency spending package to aid Ukraine that will likely be added to a larger government funding bill expected to pass next week. The White House has initially asked for $6.4 billion.