Zelensky invites US House Speaker McCarthy to visit Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to visit Ukraine, amid a growing divide among  lawmakers over whether the United States should continue to provide aid Ukraine .

In an interview with CNN that aired excerpts Wednesday, Zelensky said: “Mr. McCarthy, he has to come here to see how we work, what’s happening here, what war caused us, which people are fighting now, who are fighting now. And then after that, make your assumptions.”

McCarthy, who leads the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, is the third most important figure in the US political system after the president and vice president.

He added. “I think that Speaker McCarthy — he never visited Kyiv or Ukraine. I think it would help him with his position. When they come to us … they see the supply routes, every shell, every bullet, every dollar.”

But McCarthy, who was painstakingly elected in January, told the same news network that he did not need to go to Ukraine to understand the reality of the situation there.

The speaker of the House  enjoys powers that would block President Joe Biden’s administration’s massive aid program to support Ukraine.

Since fighting erupted in Ukraine just over a year ago, the United States has provided nearly $100 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid.

E.M