Saul Loeb AFP | Getty Images WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, urged bipartisan lawmakers on Wednesday to send more weapons to her homeland as it fends off a full-scale invasion by Russia. Zelenska spoke to members of Congress from the same chamber as her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did in March. It appeared virtually, as the Russian war had just begun. “I’m asking something now that I never wanted to ask,” Zelenska said at the US Capitol. “I am asking for weapons, weapons that will not be used to wage war on someone else’s land, but to protect their home and the right to wake up alive in that home.” Zelenska began her 15-minute speech with a photo slideshow of Ukrainian children killed by Russian missile and shelling across the country. “I’m asking for air defense systems so that the missiles don’t kill,” Zelenska said before a backdrop of graphic and disturbing images of destroyed Ukrainian roads. “While Russia is killing, America is saving and you should know that. Thank you for that,” Zelenska added, pointing to the 15 military aid packages pledged so far. Before her address to Congress, Zelenska met with First Lady Jill Biden at the White House and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the State Department. Biden last met with Zelenska during a surprise trip to Ukraine on Mother’s Day. First Lady Jill Biden receives flowers from Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, outside School 6, a public school that hosts displaced students in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, Sunday, May 8, 2022. Susan Walsh | AP Zelenska has discussed additional arms packages while in the White House and, while at the State Department, has spoken out about increasing war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that the US is assembling its 16th security assistance kit, which is tailored for fighting in eastern Ukraine. The US has provided about $8 billion in military aid since the war began in late February, including about $2.2 billion last month. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier Wednesday that the next batch of weapons will include more high mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS. With the four additional heavy missile systems, the US will have given 16 HIMARS to Ukraine. HIMARS, manufactured by defense giant Lockheed Martin, are designed to launch a variety of missiles from a mobile 5-tonne truck.
