Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begged Western leaders to send “all their money” to him during a Fox News appearance Tuesday.
Responding to criticism from the mayor of Kiev that he’s turning Ukraine into an “authoritarian state,” Zelensky told host Brett Baier that Western leaders should focus their funding Ukraine’s war rather than “build roads.”
“I say such [a] person from government or mayors think about the war, think about how to defend our people. Don’t travel through the world each day, travel to the front line. Us people are soldiers. What they need? Do this,” Zelensky said.
“Not build roads for today, don’t do it, spend all your money to the weapons, to the drones, to the society, to the [Ukraine] pensions, and etc.”
Zelensky just went on Fox and begged western leaders to send ALL their money to Ukraine
“Don’t build roads. Spend all your money on weapons, drones, Society and pensions… we have only one enemy: Putin.” pic.twitter.com/gtuGMsMS1e
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 12, 2023
“And don’t cry, because you’re leaders, and that’s it. That’s why– That’s why we are and that’s why we stayed because most of the people, people are not crying. People stay and fight against Putin, and we don’t have any enemies in our country. We can’t have time for this and we don’t have it. We have only one enemy, this is Putin, and that’s it,” he added.
Baier then asked Zelensky, “But you’ll stand for democracy going forward?”
“Of course, because we are really defending democracy and we are really defending freedom,” responded Zelensky, who has suspended elections and jailed his political rivals and members of the clergy.
During a meeting with Zelensky Tuesday, Joe Biden told reporters to “hush up” as he casually announced that another $200 million installment of aid was being sent to Ukraine.
Zelensky also met with U.S. defense contractors to appeal for more weapons and aid for its fight against Russia.
I met with leaders of US defense companies and expressed my gratitude to every American worker who manufactures weapons that help us safeguard our people and defend our land.
I appreciated all American companies that attended last week’s US-Ukraine defense industry conference.… pic.twitter.com/B82hyH2BUZ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 11, 2023
Biden also declared that Ukraine would join NATO once it won the war against Russia.
“NATO will be in Ukraine’s future, no question about that,” he said in a joint press conference.
Joe Biden: NATO will be in Ukraine’s future, no question on that pic.twitter.com/vBKg0CseHD
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) December 12, 2023
However, Ukraine has no hope of winning against Russia without tens of billions of dollars more in aid since its counteroffensive against Russia failed.
Ukraine’s forces are so depleted that it has now started conscripting middle-aged men to send to the frontline.
Watch the full exchange: