Zelensky’s visit to Washington is his last chance to win over a sceptical Republican Party

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky steps to the House of Representatives rostrum to address the body that is poised to approve more than $40bn in defence and economic assistance for his country’s fight against Russia, it will be his last chance to thank the 117th Congress for the bipartisan comity that has seen the US send nearly $90bn to Kiev since the war began 300 days ago.

And with just weeks until the ascendant Republican majority seizes control of the House, Mr Zelensky’s visit is also his last chance to mount an in-person charm offensive in hopes of keeping enough GOP House members convinced of the necessity of continuing — and increasing — US support in the coming years.

Speaking in the Ukrainian city of Bahkmut — a front-line area in the disputed Donetsk region — Mr Zelensky told a group of soldiers he plans to tell Mr Biden and the US Congress that the support America has provided his defence forces thus far “is not enough”.

Biden administration officials have hinted that they are planning to keep Kyiv’s fight against Russia at top of mind for the foreseeable future, with one official telling reporters late Tuesday that the US “will be there for Ukraine for as long as it takes,” but the incoming GOP majority may not be on board with those plans.

A previous generation of Republicans would have thought it unthinkable to deny aid to a Ukrainian government in a fight for the country’s life against Russia.

In December 1994, then-US Ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken (the father of current Secretary of State Antony Blinken) attending a signing ceremony for the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, an agreement between the US, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Ukraine (plus two other ex-Soviet republics, Kazakhstan and Belarus) under which Kyiv gave up the Soviet-built nuclear arsenal it had inherited when the Soviet Union dissolved in exchange for “security assurances” from the nuclear power signatories.

Republicans in Congress at the time supported US participation in the agreement, and support for Kyiv became a GOP priority after Russia illegally invaded and annexed the country’s Crimea region in 2014. At the time, many in the GOP pushed for lethal aid to be transferred to Ukraine’s armed forces, such as the Javelin anti-tank missiles that have been used to great effect against Russian tanks this year. And notwithstanding the attempt to illegally withhold further aid that led to his first impeachment trial, former president Donald Trump often boasted of his decision to allow the Javelins to be included in aid packages for Kyiv.

But when Russia launched another invasion in late February, the conditions in the US were quite different.

While some in the GOP, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others in the upper chamber, were keen on approving as much assistance to Kyiv as possible, others have adopted the opposite position out a knee-jerk desire to oppose anything Mr Biden and the Democrats appear to be for.

When news broke of Mr Zelensky’s imminent arrival in Washington, the ex-president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, took to Twitter to denounce the Ukrainian leader as “basically an ungrateful international welfare queen,” citing his comments in Bahkmut.

Others, including extremist Republican members such as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have levelled baseless accusations of corruption against Mr Zelensky and called for a halt to all aid to Kyiv plus an “audit” of what has been delivered thus far.

Another, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, said last month that he would not lend his vote to approve “one more dollar” for Ukraine’s defence, consistent with the position he adopted just days after the war began when he asked attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference: "Why should Americans have to pay the costs for freedom elsewhere when our own leaders won't stand up for our freedom here?"

Other GOP-aligned figures have mocked the nearly universal support for Kyiv’s defence among Democrats and many so-called “establishment Republicans” as a faddish misadventure, or complained that defending Ukraine from an invasion by a hostile power intent on destabilising western democracies is hypocritical because the same leaders who support it won’t sign on to militarising the US-Mexico border to prevent nonwhite migrants from claiming asylum.

But it’s not just the fringe who is questioning whether to continue supporting Mr Biden’s efforts to help Mr Zelensky fight back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.

The putative incoming House Speaker, California Republican Kevin McCarthy, has gone so far as to say there will be no “blank check” for Ukraine in future spending packages, and has decried the Senate’s decision to include support for Kyiv in the omnibus appropriations bill set for passage on Wednesday.

A top adviser to Mr Trump, Stephen Miller, has also called for the GOP to use support for Ukraine as a bargaining chip to extract significant policy concessions from Democrats.

And while Mr McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has said supporting Kyiv’s war efforts will remain a top GOP priority when the 118th Congress convenes, Mr Zelensky will have to use all his powers of persuasion on Wednesday to ensure that the centre holds and American weapons and funds keep flowing to his troops.