Ukraine's Zelenskiy Appeals to US Lawmakers Amid Questions Over Military Aid

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
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Ukraine's Zelenskiy Appeals to US Lawmakers Amid Questions Over Military Aid

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to lawmakers on Thursday for continued support in the war with Russia amid Republican skepticism over whether Congress should approve a new round of aid for his country.
After seeking to shore up international support at the United Nations, Zelenskiy came to Washington on a crosstown blitz that includes a meeting with military leaders at the Pentagon, President Joe Biden and an address in the evening at the National Archives museum.
While Biden and most congressional leaders still support aid to Ukraine, and Biden's Democrats control the Senate, Zelenskiy faces a tougher crowd than when he visited Washington nine months ago, Reuters reported.
Dressed in military green to reflect his status as a wartime leader, Zelenskiy briefed the full US Senate in the Capitol's historic Old Senate Chamber, receiving several standing ovations, according to a post on the platform X by Senator Chris Murphy.
"We had great dialogue," Zelenskiy told reporters at the Capitol after the meeting.
Zelenskiy told Senators that military aid was crucial to Ukraine's war effort, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in the Senate chamber after the briefing, which took place behind closed doors.
"If we don't get the aid, we will lose the war," Schumer quoted Zelenskiy as saying.
At the Pentagon, Zelenskiy was greeted by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and was set to visit to a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
As Ukraine's military counteroffensive grinds on and Congress stages a bitter debate over spending ahead of a possible government shutdown, a growing chorus of Republicans have questioned the billions of dollars Washington has sent Kyiv for military, economic and humanitarian needs.
"What is the point of cutting off support now when we're at a turning point in the war?" said Schumer, a Democrat, taking aim at Republican critics of the aid. "Now is not the time to take the foot off the gas when it comes to helping Ukraine."
The US has sent some $113 billion in security and humanitarian aid to help Zelenskiy's government since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Russia carried out its biggest missile attack in weeks across Ukraine on Thursday, pounding energy facilities in what officials said appeared to be the first salvo in a new air campaign against the Ukrainian power grid.
Zelenskiy on Wednesday pressed his case for financial help with some of America's best known billionaires who made their fortunes in industries ranging from finance to tech and sports.
Biden administration officials held a classified briefing for Congress on Wednesday evening, to push for an additional $24 billion, saying if Russian President Vladimir Putin was allowed to take control of Ukraine and pushed through to the border of NATO, the cost to the United States would be much higher.
But some Republicans were not convinced.
Republican Senator J.D. Vance said the United States "is being asked to fund an indefinite conflict with unlimited resources."
"Enough is enough," he said in a post on X, which included a letter dated Thursday to the director of the Office of Management and Budget questioning the aid and signed by Republicans from both houses of Congress.
Biden will announce a new $325 million military aid package for Ukraine, which is expected to include the second tranche of cluster munitions fired by a 155 millimeter Howitzer cannon.
"If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?" Biden asked world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday.
Congress approved Ukraine assistance easily when both the Senate and House were controlled by Democrats. Zelenskiy, who has become a powerful advocate for his country, was greeted as a hero when he addressed a joint meeting of Congress in December.
Support in the Senate, both from Biden's fellow Democrats and Republicans, has remained strong.
"Our nation has a fundamental interest in Ukrainian victory and European security," Senate Republican Leader McConnell said on Wednesday in a speech criticizing Biden for acting too slowly to help Ukraine.
Solid majorities of Americans support providing weaponry to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.
But some of the Republicans who took narrow control of the House in January are questioning the wisdom of continuing to send funds to Kyiv. About a third of the House Republican caucus voted in July for a failed proposal to cut funding for Ukraine.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."