Zelensky arrives to grim Capitol Hill as Biden’s aid package for Ukraine risks collapse

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Tuesday on Capitol Hill to a darker mood than when he swooped in last winter for a hero's welcome, as the Russian invasion is grinding into a third year and US funding hangs in the balance.

Zelenskyy's visit to Washington comes as President Joe Biden's request for an additional $110 billion US aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs is at serious risk of collapse in Congress. 

Republicans are insisting on strict US-Mexico border security changes that Democrats decry as draconian in exchange for the overseas aid.

It is maddening, said Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of Biden. A very bad message to the world, to the Ukrainian people.

The White House said the time was right for Zelenskyy's trip to Washington as Biden pushes lawmakers to approve the aid package before the year-end holidays. 

A top spokesman said the US can't let Ukraine aid lapse, especially as the Israel-Hamas war has taken attention, and that the president was willing to make compromises with Republicans.

But the prospects for a deal on Ukraine funding turned grim at the Capitol on the eve of Zelenskyy's arrival.

He made no comments as he entered a private meeting with senators.

He was next scheduled to visit new House Speaker Mike Johnson, then talk with Biden at the White House as the once robust bipartisan support for Ukraine was slipping further out of reach.

Ahead of Zelenskyy's high-stakes meetings, the White House late Monday pointed to newly declassified intelligence that shows Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on Russia in recent fighting along the Avdiivka-Novopavlivka axis including 13,000 casualties and over 220 combat vehicle losses. 

The Ukrainian holdout in the country's partly-occupied east has been the centre of some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.

US intelligence officials have determined that the Russians think if they can achieve a military deadlock through the winter it will drain Western support for Ukraine and ultimately give Russia the advantage, despite the fact that Russians have sustained heavy losses and have been slowed by persistent shortages of trained personnel, munitions and equipment.

Republicans in Congress, fueled by Johnson's far-right flank in the House, have taken on an increasingly isolationist stance in US foreign policy, demanding changes to American border and immigration policies in exchange for any funds to battle Putin's war in Ukraine.

Biden has expressed a willingness to engage with the Republicans as migrant crossings have hit record highs along the US-Mexico border, but Democrats in his own party oppose proposals for expedited deportations and strict asylum standards as a return to Trump-era hostility towards migrants.

With talks at a standstill, one chief Republican negotiator, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, said there was nothing Zelenskyy could say during his visit with the senators to sway the outcome.

Zelenskyy, who visited Washington just months ago in September when the aid package was first being considered, is making his third trip to the Capitol since the war broke out in February 2022.

His surprise arrival days before Christmas last December was Zelenskyy's first wartime trip out of Ukraine and he received thunderous applause in Congress. Lawmakers sported the blue-and-yellow colors of Ukraine, and Zelenskyy delivered a speech that drew on the parallels to World War II as he thanked Americans for their support.