INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukraine's besieged leader invoked September 11 and Pearl Harbor in an impassioned address Wednesday to the United States Congress,
imploring Washington to step up military aid and impose a no-fly zone to counter the Russian invasion closing in on Kyiv.Paraphrasing civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr
and presenting a chilling video of the death and destruction visited on Ukrainian cities by Moscow's onslaught, President Volodymyr
response.President Joe Biden was expected to follow-up by announcing an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, but the White
House has consistently rejected the idea of a no-fly zone for fear of an escalation that could bring NATO countries into direct conflict
with Russian forces.More than three weeks into a war that has claimed hundreds of civilian lives and displaced three million people abroad,
for 80 years.""Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you," he said,
recalling the air raid that brought the United States into World War II."Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to
wearing his now trademark green army T-shirt, a Ukrainian flag behind him.The third president of post-Soviet Ukraine to address the United
States Congress, Zelenskiy's appearance was being touted as the most dramatic by a foreign leader since Winston Churchill in 1941.But it
was the civil rights activist King that the comedian-turned-wartime leader recalled as he pleaded for a no-fly zone to defend Ukraine's
skies."I have a dream, these words are known to each of you today I can say
I have a need, I need to protect our sky
I need your decision, your help," he said.'Leader of peace'Addressing Biden directly, Zelenskiy urged him to be "the leader of peace" as he
showed lawmakers wrenching footage of ruined buildings and injured Ukrainian civilians including children, with the final frame showing the
after lawmakers green-lit nearly $14 billion in humanitarian and military aid for the war-torn nation.It was his second speech to members of
Congress, having talked to 300 of them during a video call earlier this month, but the first time he appealed directly to the American
to vote this week on legislation to revoke normal trade relations with Russia, just days after Biden announced a United States ban on
Russian oil and gas.But the renewed call for more help to beef up Ukrainian air defenses beyond Stinger and Javelin missiles is likely to
maintain the pressure on Biden to go further.The Democratic chairman of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, Mark Warner, declared
himself "incredibly moved" by Zelenskiy's address, saying Washington must heed his call for additional anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft
many lawmakers have backed Zelensky's pleas for United States officials to help broker the transfer of Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine,
useful MiG fighters would be to Kyiv."The idea that we're going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in
Biden told House Democrats last week.
