Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would only stop resisting and fighting on the day of victory (File)
Kiev:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on Sunday that nothing would weaken his country’s fight against Russia, a day after the US Congress passed an emergency financing bill that withheld aid to Ukraine.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said separately that he had received reassurance about further military assistance in a telephone conversation with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Secretary Austin assured me,” he wrote in a message on will continue to have a position’. backup on the battlefield.”
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Kiev is working with its US partners to ensure that a new budget decision includes funds for the country, and that US support is intact.
Zelenskyy did not directly address the vote in Congress in a recorded speech marking the Defenders Day holiday, but reiterated his determination to fight for victory.
No one can “shut down” Ukraine’s stability, endurance, strength and courage, he said, echoing a Ukrainian verb often used to refer to power outages caused by Russian attacks.
He added that Ukraine would only stop resisting and fighting on the day of victory. “As we get closer every day, we say, ‘We will fight as long as it takes.'”
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Republicans had pledged to provide aid to Ukraine in a separate vote and that US support could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also sought to reassure Ukrainians about future US support in comments on Facebook, stressing that previously approved funds would remain unaffected.
“Support for Ukraine remains staunchly strong within the U.S. government, in both parties and chambers of the U.S. Congress, and especially among the American people,” he wrote.
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