U.S. senators have been invited to talk Saturday morning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy through Zoom, two sources with knowledge of the meeting told NBC News.
The meeting will be the first time senators have been able to speak with Zelenskyy since Russia invaded Ukraine and serves as an effective tool for the leader to pitch to members of Congress how to bolster the country's armed forces, according to The Hill.
Zelenskyy's refusal to leave Kyiv despite the Russian incursion has earned him bipartisan praise from U.S. lawmakers and the wider public, which makes his appearance especially useful for representing Ukraine abroad, The Hill said.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., compared him to World War II-era British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
"One of the questions the other day in the Intelligence Committee [was] was Zelenskyy going to be Ghani, the Afghan leader who cut and run once the Taliban started to move forward or was he going to be Churchill? And so far, he has been Churchillian in his response," Warner said in a Washington Post Live interview.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, met with members of the Senate in person, also lobbying for more supplies to help fight the Russian military, The Hill reported.
Ukrainian officials have also pushed U.S. legislators about creating a no-fly zone over their country. The lawmakers have warned, however, that the idea could lead to the U.S. having to shoot down Russian planes, initiating a wider conflict, according to The Hill.
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