May 1, 2022

Pelosi Vows Unwavering Support for Ukraine in Unannounced Meeting With Zelenskyy

The House speaker is the highest-ranking US official to meet thus far with Ukraine’s wartime president.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 30 in Kyiv, Ukraine.The Presidential Office of Ukraine/AP Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday led a congressional delegation in an unannounced visit to Kyiv to meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Democratic Party leader, the highest-ranking US lawmaker to visit Ukraine’s capital since Russia’s invasion, said in a statement that the meeting sends “an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine.”

Pelosi said Zelenskyy conveyed the need for continued security, economic, and humanitarian assistance from the United States as it enters the third month of an unprovoked, brutal assault by Russian missiles and ground troops. The delegation of six Democratic lawmakers “proudly delivered the message” that additional support is on the way, Pelosi said, adding that Congress will work to “transform President Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package.”

The delegation’s visit came just days after Biden urged Congress to approve an additional $33 billion. In a White House statement Thursday, Biden said that “the cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.” Every day, he added, Ukrainians pay a price, and “the price they pay is with their lives for this fight. ” 

Pelosi’s and the delegation met with Zelenskyy and his top aides for three hours late Saturday to “get a first-hand assessment of the war effort to date.” Zelenskyy’s request for more resources from the United States was needed to “address the devastating human toll taken on the Ukrainian people by Putin’s diabolic invasion,” Pelosi’s statement said. (Earlier in the week Moscow confirmed it had carried out a missile attack in Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary General to the capital.) 

After the delegation’s visit to Ukraine, they traveled to Poland where Pelosi said in a press briefing that “America stands with Ukraine until victory is won.” She described Zelenskyy’s wartime leadership as “dazzling.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate