Russia-Ukraine live updates: Zelensky urges Biden to be 'leader of the world’ in address to Congress

House Republican leaders told reporters Wednesday that they were deeply moved by the video Zelensky showed Congress of the atrocities being committed by Russia in Ukraine, with Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) calling Russia’s actions a “genocide.”

Scalise, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said the United States must do more to help Ukraine.

“I thought the video was one of the most moving moments in there,” McCarthy told reporters. “It made the case [that Russia is] murdering innocent people, that war crimes are being committed, that America and the world cannot sit by and ignore. We need to put a stop to this.”

Stefanik said that as a new mother, it was “heartbreaking” to see footage of Russia’s bombing of maternity wards in Ukraine.

She and the other GOP leaders called Zelensky’s address to Congress inspiring.

“When President Zelensky showed that video, you really got to see firsthand the sheer brutality of what Putin is doing inside Ukraine,” Scalise said. “It was very hard to watch.”

He added that the video shows that there’s “nothing less than genocide” happening in the country.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s video address to Congress, senators from both parties said they would press their colleagues and President Biden for more U.S. aid for Ukraine.

“I don’t know how anyone could listen to him and see the videos and not be in favor of . . . sending drones, sending additional weaponry, ceasing doing business in Russia,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.).

The video stirred emotions among lawmakers. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said he wants Biden not only to announce more financial support for Ukraine but also to make it clear that the funds will move quickly and “more creatively.”

“A powerful message that came out of that video . . . was that, for all he’s done, it’s not enough,” Portman said. “So, we need to do more, and, specifically, we need to provide them the armaments at a minimum to be able to protect themselves.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Zelensky’s plea for more weapons and help “is a good one.”

“I’m looking forward to see what the president says,” she said.

Klobuchar, who was in Poland last week and met Ukrainian refugees, said the video brought the terrors of the war to her colleagues who have not seen it live.

“For those of our colleagues that either haven’t seen the refugees or even been to Ukraine, I think it really hits home, the horror of what’s going on here, and I thought it was really important to see that,” Klobuchar said.

In his remarks to Congress on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the United States to help establish a “humanitarian no-fly zone” over Ukraine, telling lawmakers that doing so would prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from being “able to terrorize our free cities.”

“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky said.

The Biden administration has resisted the idea of a no-fly zone, arguing that imposing one could lead the United States into direct combat with Russia.

“Is this a lot to ask for, to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to save people? Is this too much to ask? A humanitarian no-fly zone is something that [means] Russia would not be able to terrorize our free cities. If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative.”

Listing alternatives, Zelensky added: “You know what kind of defense systems we need — S-300 and other similar systems,” a reference to surface-to-air missiles. “You know how much depends on the battlefield on the ability to use aircraft — powerful, strong aviation — to protect our people, our freedom, our land. Aircraft that can help Ukraine, help Europe.”

He added: “And you know that they exist and you have them, but they are on earth, not in the Ukrainian sky. They do not defend our people.”

Humanitarian, or limited, no-fly zones are generally interpreted to mean providing protection for humanitarian corridors negotiated by Ukraine and Russia to evacuate civilians from besieged cities and to send in food, medicines and other basic supplies.

In making his appeal, Zelensky also invoked the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

“‘I have a dream.’ These words are known to each of you,” Zelensky said. “Today, I can say, ‘I have a need. I need to protect our sky.’”

Olivier Knox contributed to this report.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was moved by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s words and that the United States has a responsibility to do more for Ukraine.

“We have an opportunity and obligation to take much more forceful action,” Blumenthal said. “I was in Poland last week at the border, 12 miles from where the Russians bombed. ... It was absolutely reckless, not just inhumane.”

Blumenthal said Zelensky’s words to Congress were “very, very powerful” and that not one lawmaker moved or spoke when the Ukrainian president played the video of Russia’s devastation in Ukraine.

Zelensky, Blumenthal said, is appealing to Biden’s empathy.

“He’s appealing to the best instincts of the president,” Blumenthal said. “He knows how empathetic the president is, seeing those children in that video. You know the old saying: A picture’s worth 1,000 words.”

Blumenthal said the United States needs to provide Ukraine with “much more robust air defense, drones, planes.”

“Ukrainians can win a fair fight on the ground,” Blumenthal said. “Right now, they have a reign of terror in the skies. And that’s ... critical.”

Wall Street was on track for more gains Wednesday, with the Dow jumping 1.3 percent in morning trading as investors anticipated the first interest rate increase in years by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed on Wednesday is wrapping up its March meeting, where it is expected to announce a quarter-percentage-point increase in its benchmark interest rate. Raising rates is the central bank’s best policy lever against inflation that had soared to a 40-year high even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has compounded the issue by causing major disruptions to energy markets that are rippling through the global economy.

“The central bank has a fine balancing act of taking action to curb inflation while not being too aggressive and tripping up the economy,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Wednesday in comments emailed to The Washington Post. “The key question is how many more rate rises we’ll get and how quickly they will come. Fast and furious could stall the U.S.’s growth engine.”

Shortly after the opening bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.9 percent, while the broader S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent. The Dow climbed 400 points, or 1.3 percent, extending gains from Tuesday’s rally, which was fueled by relief over oil prices coming down from recent highs.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was trading 1.5 percent higher Wednesday, around $101.50 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was trading up nearly 2.1 percent, around $98.50 per barrel.

Chinese equities saw some major recovery Wednesday after enduring days of steep sell-offs sparked by a covid surge that is threatening to throw more wrenches into the global supply chain and further heat up inflation. Stocks rebounded after officials in Beijing assured the public that the country would work to avert an economic slowdown amid the renewal of business restrictions that have shuttered some of its biggest business and technological hubs.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rocketed 9 percent higher, while the Shanghai Composite index closed up about 3.5 percent.

Zelensky paused in his remarks to Congress to show a video that captured the devastation in Ukraine since Russian forces launched their assault weeks ago.

“I ask you to watch one video, video of what the Russian troops did in our country, in our land,” he said. “We have to stop it. We must prevent it.”

The clip opened by showing a tranquil Ukrainian life before the Russian invasion. People are seen laughing in the streets, and children are playing in playgrounds. Buildings stand tall. Then those same buildings are seen being hit by mortars and rockets, floors destroyed.

As somber music plays, the video shows parents crying as they kiss their children, badly wounded in hospital beds, children in tears, and bloodstained sheets over corpses.

“This is a murder,” the video says.

The clip ends noting Zelensky’s appeal to the United States for a no-fly zone: “Close the sky over Ukraine.”

During his remarks to the U.S. Congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the creation of a new international alliance called U24 that would intervene to stop conflict around the world within 24 hours.

U24, he said, would be “a union of responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflicts immediately, provide all the necessary assistance in 24 hours if necessary, even weapons if necessary, sanctions, humanitarian support, political support, finance, everything you need to keep the peace and quickly the save the world, to save lives.”

Zelensky said the alliance could also provide assistance to countries that experience natural disasters, man-made disasters, humanitarian crises or epidemics.

He cited the worldwide distribution of coronavirus vaccines as an example of an activity that such an alliance could have facilitated.

In closing remarks in a video asking the United States to close the skies over Ukraine, Zelensky appealed directly to President Biden asking him to be “the leader of the world.”

“This is my main issue. As the leader of my people — great Ukrainians — and the leader of my nation, I’m addressing President Biden,” Zelensky said. “You are the leader of … your great nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.”

Zelensky said it is no longer enough to be the leader of one’s country to maintain peace. To keep world peace, leaders depend on “those next to you and those who are strong,” he said.

“Strong doesn’t mean big,” Zelensky said. “Strong is brave and ready to fight for the lives of his citizens and citizens of the world, for human rights, for freedom, for the right to live decently, and to die when your time comes. Not when it’s wanted by someone else.”

Today, Zelensky continued, the Ukrainian people “are defending not only Ukraine,” but “we are fighting for the values of Europe and the world, sacrificing our lives in the name of the future.”

“That’s why today the American people are helping not just Ukraine, but Europe and the world to keep the planet alive, to keep justice in history,” he said.

Zelensky, 45, said that his age stopped “when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating.”

“I see no sense in life if I cannot stop the deaths,” Zelensky said.