US Senator Blumenthal Defy Russian Threat With Surprise Visit, Meets Zelensky

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Here in Kyiv on my 10th trip to Ukraine, I'm seeing again the death and destruction that Russia is inflicting on this brave, great country.

[00:00:11]With loss of life and the terror that they're trying to impose to force Ukraine to succumb and surrender.

[00:00:20]Ukraine is standing strong despite this massive destruction to its country night after night after night. Last night when we were here and I am, as always, [music] in awe of the courage and strength of this people and I hope the United States will stand with them. America is not leaving Ukraine. Our diplomats are here to stay.

[00:00:46]We're standing behind Ukraine as we have done from the outset.

[00:00:53]We will not be cowed by Russian threats or bullying.

[00:01:02]We're not scared.

[00:01:09]My hope and expectation is that America will respond positively to this request.

[00:01:16]We have in the past done so. We should again in the future because it is truly about saving lives. When we saw the bombed-out mall, the destroyed apartment buildings, clearly Putin is targeting women and children and other civilians.

[00:01:43]>> Ballistic missiles are much more difficult to intercept and require more exquisite capabilities. The Patriots and a variety of other interceptor uh missiles. Again, it's it's early days to know um exactly what will be provided. I think, as we've said repeatedly the Congress is going to push for more not less hard for us to predict where the White House will be.

[00:02:20]>> Thank you for coming these days difficult days after a massive attack.

[00:02:24]Thanks for your support bipartisan support but we are thankful to the United States.

[00:02:31]And we are thankful to President and to to the Congress of the United States.

[00:02:38]Thanks for coming such difficult period.

[00:02:43]And it's it's true we had massive attack on Ukraine. I decided to wrote a letter to the Congress of the United States and also to to the White House. I can give you the copy but we send already.

[00:02:57]We send it already to to the Congress of the United States. I think that the the situation is not a simple because of these attacks. We have the questions with anti-ballistic missiles and we are very thankful for the program portal and we are thankful for our dialogue and for the negotiations but if to look at these in in the in this moment to we can we can see that even during our really initiative on the battlefield we've got it. We are in the better position than it was during the year. We even in such situation we have such circumstances where our people are not safe. Civilians first of all I'm speaking about our civilians because of the big deficit with anti-ballistic missiles And even the program Paul, the which works, doesn't help totally.

[00:03:58]>> What Putin is doing is beyond cruelty.

[00:04:02]He's trying to terrorize and bully Ukraine into submission and convince the world that Russia is winning.

[00:04:10]I came back from my visit in February to tell people Russia is not winning.

[00:04:18]Russia is not going to win.

[00:04:21]Ukraine can prevail if we support Ukraine. And I am here to thank you for helping our military, our men and women, saving their lives from the Iranian drones and missiles.

[00:04:37]What you are teaching the world is so extraordinarily valuable.

[00:04:45]And we owe you.

[00:04:47]We owe you not only for the lessons in technology, but also for the lessons in courage and perseverance, the lessons in bravery and resilience, and ingenuity, and creativity responding to war in a way that's never been done before.