members of congress after delivering extraordinarily moving speech, the highlight of it, though, being the video that showed really just stark images, not just of warfare but a reminder of the beauty of ukraine and its people aa. a month ago. it reminds me of the quote one photograph said, photography is the story i can fail to put into words. that was so true of those images. his words, though, mika, he did remind americans and members of congress that ukrainians have been resisting russians for eight years, that we have given our best sons and daughters to stop russian aggression. russia has not just attacked ukraine, they have attacked our most basic values, our freedom,
that the military budget was going to be able to be cut. that is not the case anymore. vladimir putin, just as he has awakened, really, bipartisan democratic yearning in this congress and across europe, and just as he s inspired germany to spend more money on their military, the same is happening here. they re expecting more money to be spent in the u.s. defense budgets to move it up to perhaps 3, 3 1/2% of our gdp. a couple of things, joe, the president is expected to speak in a few hours, and deliver more aid, deliver news of more aid toward ukraine. sources very close to the white house say that a lot is being done that isn t being shared publicly to help arm the ukrainians in some way, shape or form, and finally president zelenskyy may be showing some video during this address.
the russians lost huge numbers of those tanks, people and so this is going to really help the ukrainians be that much more lethal and drive home the message that putin is getting loud and clear that he wandered into a boxed canyon and needs to think about a quick way out of it. you have no objection to jets being delivered to to planes being delivered to the ukrainians if it s in a way that the white house doesn t feel is a provocation. that is my view and been adamant and explaining to people what a no-fly zone. i ll say it again. please. we spend a week or two taking out russian anti-aircraft capabilitys. not putting pilots in danger. we spend a week or two attacking russian anti-aircraft capability in ukraine and belarus and russia. it is us killing, the united states killing russian troops
cannot stop the deaths and this is my main mission as the leader of my people. great ukrainians. and as the leader of my nation i am addressing the president biden. you are the leader of the nation. of your great nation. i wish you could be the leader of the world. being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace. thank you. proud ukraine. a speech for the ages. president biden reacted just hours after president zelenskyy called on president biden as you heard there to be the leader of the world, the leader of peace. president biden reiterated u.s. support of ukraine and announced
clear and so searing today. today of all days, the ukrainians and russian counterparts seem to sound some optimistic notes about the peace talks. what do you understand that about that? this is the sort of strange juxtaposition you have here. i think it speaks to this need where more and more people will say, anything to stop this fighting. at the least, to get supplies to these cities to allow aid. then you have the bigger picture, the americans are thinking about if there was some kind of cessation of violence we re not there yet. but if there was, what does it look like after that? russia made gains here, geographically, politically. they are removing mayors, holding people hostage. it s something the u.s. government is having to think about. secretary blinken this morning talked about how you ensure that russia doesn t just flare back up again and start taking territory. here is a little bit of his thinking.