Zelensky invites Republican American tenor Kevin McCarthy to Kyiv

BET À DAY

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invites Republican Kevin McCarthy, leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, to visit Kyiv as protests begin to mount among conservatives on helping Ukraine. 

“Mr. McCarthy needs to come here to see how we work, what's going on, what the war has done, what people are fighting now and who they're fighting. And only after that, make up your mind,” Mr. Zelensky added.

He was speaking in an interview with CNN, which will air Wednesday evening, according to excerpts broadcast by television.

At the head of the new Republican majority in the House, Kevin McCarthy is as such the third most important figure in American politics after the president and the vice-president.

“I think that the ” speaker”McCarthy has never visited Kiev or Ukraine and I think that might help him,” the Ukrainian president added.

But the Republican House of Representatives boss, laboriously elected in January, told CNN he did not need to travel to Ukraine to understand the situation.

He can, in his position, hinder President Joe Biden's massive aid program to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine there are more than a year, the United States provided nearly $100 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who preceded Mr. McCarthy to the post, traveled to Kyiv in May 2022 to show support for Ukraine.

While he is not opposed to US support for Ukraine, McCarthy has repeatedly said that the Congress should not sign “blank checks” without careful scrutiny.

A sizable minority of Republicans in Congress, however, have expressed opposition to military and financial aid to Ukraine.

< p>“My position has always been that I will not sign a blank check. From there, I don't have to go to Ukraine to figure out if it's a blank check or not,” Mr. McCarthy assured CNN.