On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress, desperately asking for increased assistance to repel the Russian invasion and end the killing of civilians — invoking mass casualty attacks on the United States and saying this requires the same urgency.
"Remember Pearl Harbor," he said. "Remember September 11 ... our country experiences the same every day, right now, at this moment." He also paraphrased Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech at the March on Washington, saying, "I have a need. I need to protect our free sky."
\u201cRemember Pearl Harbor,\u201d Zelensky tells Congress. \u201cRemember Sept. 11. \u2026. Our country experiences the same every day.\u201d— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju) 1647436249
"I need to protect our sky," Zelensky says, while invoking MLK's "I have a dream" speech.— Kyle Cheney (@Kyle Cheney) 1647436389
Zelenskyy redoubled his call for the U.S. to establish a "no fly zone" to directly shoot down Russian aircraft over Ukraine, a measure President Joe Biden has ruled out, unless Russia attacks NATO territory, for fear of the conflict escalating to world war. He also asked for aircraft transfers, and for the existing embargo against Russia to be toughened, saying, "New packages of sanctions are needed every week."
