A U.S. Senate delegation visiting Ukraine led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised to pressure the leader of the House of Representatives to bring a bill that includes military aid up for a vote.
"We are going to do everything we can to tell him [Speaker Mike Johnson] what we have learned and openly pressure him to make the right decision," said Schumer after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
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Schumer, who was part of a delegation of five senators that held talks with Zelenskiy in Lviv, said Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) should "do the right thing," adding that he and the other senators are confident it will pass.
Schumer (Democrat-New York) also said Zelenskiy told the delegation that without the aid Ukraine will lose the war.
The Senate last week passed a military aid package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine. President Joe Biden has urged the House to approve it, but Johnson sent members home for a two-week recess without bringing the measure up for a vote.
Johnson, an ally of Republican former President Donald Trump, voted against bills to provide assistance to Ukraine before he became speaker.
Schumer said that if Ukrainian forces during the defense of Avdiyivka had had more weapons and ammunition, the result would have been different. Ukrainian forces last week withdrew from the Donetsk city after months of heavy fighting.
"If Ukraine does not receive help, Putin may be right on the Polish border sooner or later," Schumer said, adding that the delegation had been told by almost everyone during its visit -- representatives of the military, politicians, diplomats -- that if Ukraine gets help, it will win the war.
Another member of the delegation, Senator Jack Reed (Democrat-Rhode Island), said that the United States must make a decision to help Ukraine in order to avoid having to send its own troops.
"As Senator Schumer beautifully said to Speaker Johnson: If you come to Ukraine, you will see the cemetery that we saw today, if you go to the wall in Kyiv, which I visited to lay flowers there, you will see people of all ages who died in support of democracy,” Reed said.
“You will have no choice, America has no choice. Pay now by supplying arms to the brave warriors who bleed and die, or our young men and women will bleed and die on the battlefields of Europe.”
Reed pledged to work for additional support, including military aid, for Ukraine.