House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in a secret visit to the country’s capitol city, according to footage released Sunday.
“Nice to meet you, thank you for coming,” Zelensky says in the video of him joined by an armed escort coming to meet Pelosi at the steps of a building in Kyiv.
The footage shows that Pelosi was joined by Rep. Adam Schiff and other congress members.
Pelosi and Zelensky are also shown posing in front of the American and Ukraine flags and entire group is then seen around a meeting table.
“We believe that we are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom,” Pelosi says to Zelensky.
“That we are on a frontier of freedom and your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” she adds.
Along with the footage he shared on Twitter, Zelensky said “Thank you for helping to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state!” according to a rough translation.
Pelosi is the highest ranking US official to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion and her visit comes a week after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Zelensky in Kyiv.
Zelensky said the meeting “shows that the United States today is a leader in strong support for Ukraine during the war against the aggression of the Russian Federation”.
In her statement released Sunday, Pelosi said “Our delegation proudly delivered the message that additional American support is on the way, as we work to transform President Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package?”.
“Our delegation conveyed our respect and gratitude to President Zelensky for his leadership and our admiration of the Ukrainian people for their courage in the fight against Russia’s oppression?,” it continued.
Last week, Biden asked Congress to approve $33 billion in funding for Ukraine, including $20.4 billion in military spending, $8.5 billion in cash for Ukraine’s government, and $3 billion in humanitarian relief.