House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Monday that President Zelensky will address both houses of Congress.
This is reported by The New York Times.
"As a war goes Ukraine, we invite all members of the House and Senate with great respect and admiration for the Ukrainian people to attend a virtual speech to the United States Congress to be said by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky," - Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. - Congress remains unwavering in its dedicated support for Ukraine as it faces Putin's brutal and diabolical aggression, as well as passing laws to strike and isolate the Russian economy, and providing humanitarian, security, and economic assistance to Ukraine."
The New York Times suggests that the Ukrainian president's speech is likely to rally serious support in Congress, particularly on the issue of providing aircraft to Ukraine. The publication notes that even President Biden's comrades-in-arms from the Democratic Party called on the White House to facilitate the transfer of fighter jets to the Ukrainians. Republicans are even more active on this issue.
"We applaud the Polish government for taking active steps to transfer MiG-29 aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force," - said a statement from nearly 60 congressmen, Republicans, and Democrats. - We call for help to facilitate this agreement, we pledge to replenish our allies' fleets with American-made aircraft."
On March 8, the Polish government agreed to transfer all of its MiG-29s, which Ukraine claimed, to the United States. The fighters were to be moved to the U.S. Ramstein military base in Germany, and from there transferred to Ukraine.
At the same time, the U.S. said it did not consider Poland's proposal capable. "The prospect of U.S. government-operated fighter jets flying out of the U.S.-NATO base in Germany and into Ukraine, against which Russia is at war, is of concern to the entire Alliance," - Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Though before that the press secretary of the White House Jen Psaki stated that the US was not against the transfer of the planes to Ukraine.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. decision to refuse to transfer the Polish MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine was made personally by President Biden, who vetoed the delivery of the aircraft in order not to provoke Vladimir Putin to escalate the war.