Ukraine's First Lady Appealed To U.S. Congress For More Weapons

The First Lady of Ukraine on Wednesday pleaded with the U.S. Congress to authorize more weapons for Kyiv, saying it could help assure a great victory, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

“While Russia kills, America saves,” said Olena Zelenska in her emotional 15-minute speech to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Zelenska, addressed bipartisan lawmakers from the same room that her husband Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did a few months ago. He appeared virtually, due to Russia’s war.

Zelenska showed videos of children that had been wounded or killed, including a 3-year-old boy now in Germany learning how to use prosthetic limbs. "How many children like him are there in Ukraine? How many families like this may still be destroyed by war?" she asked: "These are Russia's 'Hunger Games"

"We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine," she added.

“I’m asking for something now I would never want to ask,” Zelenska said: “I’m asking for weapons, weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else’s land, but to protect one’s home and the right to wake up alive in that home.”

The first lady's appeal came just as the U.S. Defense Secretary Llloyd Austin, speaking on Wednesday at the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, announced that Washington would provide four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to Ukraine as part of a forthcoming package of military assistance.

The U.S. has already sent 12 such rocket launchers to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion.

Later this week, the Biden administration will roll out another round of aid, which will mark the 16th drawdown of equipment from the Pentagon's inventory since last August.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.