US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and three other Republican senators made a surprise trip to Kyiv Saturday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — as a bipartisan bill to send US $40 billion in additional aid remained stalled in the Congress.
President Zelensky wrote on his Instagram account, that the visit, the latest in a string of high-level US trips as the Russian invasion grinds on, was a strong signal of bipartisan support for Ukraine from the United States Congress and the American people.
McConnell, along with Sens. Susan Collins, John Cornyn, and John Barrasso, made the trip just two days after their fellow Republican, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, forced a temporary halt to the massive military and humanitarian aid bill.
A top Zelensky aide wrote that the visit signaled an imminent end to the impasse in Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a similar surprise meeting with Zelensky on May 1, and first lady Jill Biden greeted Zelensky’s wife Olena Zelenska in an unannounced Mother’s Day trip over the Ukrainian border on Sunday.
