Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LONDON: President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to visit Washington on Wednesday (today) and may meet US President, Joe Biden, reports said.
According to the BBC, it will be his first foreign trip since the Russian invasion in February. President Zelensky could also address Congress, an unnamed authority told the US media. There has been no official confirmation the plan. On Tuesday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the members of Congress to be in attendance on Wednesday night. She wrote without giving further information. Please be present for a special focus on democracy, she said.
President Zelensky regularly hosts foreign leaders in the capital Kyiv and has visited the troops around Ukraine. He made an unannounced visit to the front-line city of the Bakhmut on Tuesday. The president of Ukrainian has also spoken frequently to world leaders over the telephone and by video call, often from his office in Kyiv.
But an unannounced visit to the foreign country would mark a first since the war began and signal the importance of Ukraine’s relationship with the US, which has played the leading role in providing military support.
Zelensky’s appeal for US aid
Zelensky has appealed for more aid and said that Ukraine’s monthly cost of defense was about $5bn (£4.1bn). US media has said President Joe Biden’s government is considering supplying Ukraine with Patriot missiles that would enable the country to protect its vital infrastructure against Russian strikes.
