WASHINGTON - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress on Wednesday, aiming to persuade Republican lawmakers to continue to fund his country’s defence against Russia.

“It is a great honour for me to be at the US Congress and speak to you and all Americans. against all doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking,” said Mr Zelensky.

“We defeated Russia in the battle for the minds of the world,” he said.

He thanked the US for its aid to his country thus far, and said the US aid is not charity, but an investment in global security.

“Your money is not charity, it’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way,” Mr Zelensky said during the address.

“This struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live and then their children and grandchildren,” Mr Zelensky said.

“The world is too interconnected and interdependent to allow someone to stay aside and at the same time to feel safe when such a battle continues.”

Referencing former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served between 1933 and 1945, and efforts to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, Mr Zelensky also appealed to Americans as they gathered with family for Christmas.

“Just like the brave American soldiers, which gave their lives and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same...this Christmas,” he said.

The Battle of the Bulge began in December 1944 was Hitler’s final major attempt to push back Allied forces.

Poor weather hampered initial US efforts to halt the offensive, leading to fatalities and threatening to divide allies. Allied forces ultimately prevailed.

Mr Zelensky also vowed never to surrender to Russia.

“Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender,” Mr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader received a standing ovation when he walked into the chamber.

Three members held up a large Ukrainian flag during the ovation.

Following a meeting at the White House with Democratic President Joe Biden, Mr Zelensky’s speech needed to resonate with a bipartisan audience of US lawmakers, including House of Representatives Republicans, who have voiced increasing scepticism about continuing to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky joined a long list of world leaders to address joint meetings of the Senate and House, a tradition that began in 1874 with a visit by Hawaiian King Kalakaua and included almost legendary wartime visits by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as kings, queens and one pope.

It also marked one of the last times Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, presides over the chamber as Speaker of the House, before Republicans take the majority on Jan 3 and she returns to the rank and file of her caucus.

Planning for Mr Zelensky’s speech began in October, according to a Pelosi aide, when she met with Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ms Pelosi was attending the First Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform in Zagreb, Croatia, at the time.

Exactly 300 days after Russian troops invaded and amid intensified rocket attacks that have left Ukrainian cities in ruins, Mr Zelensky arrived knowing that the Senate and House control America’s purse strings.

His timing was perfect, as Congress is on the verge of approving an additional US$44.9 billion (S$60 billion) in new emergency military and economic assistance, on top of some US$50 billion already sent to Ukraine this year.

First wartime trip abroad

Daniel Fried, former US ambassador to Poland and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Mr Zelensky’s trip demonstrated that he and Mr Biden share a belief that the United States, despite its faults, is leader of the free world.

Mr Zelensky, Fried said, “didn’t go to Berlin, Brussels, London or Paris” for his first trip abroad since the start of the war.

The 44-year-old Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, also visited Washington on a day that the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed a new ambassador to Russia.

The optics of Mr Zelensky’s welcome as a defender of democracy carried a message far deeper than military aid. It was meant to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States and its Nato allies remain steadfastly behind Ukraine, despite recent signs of impatience among some Republican lawmakers over the rising cost.

When he walked through the House chamber’s double-wooden doors, the cheers were accented by some lawmakers wearing blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Ms Pelosi regularly wears a US and Ukraine flag pin. She noted in an appearance with Mr Zelensky ahead of his speech that her father, Representative Thomas D’Alesandro, was present for Mr Churchill’s first address to Congress in 1941, early in World War II.

Many of the House’s 435 members and the Senate’s 100 attended the speech.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sported a yellow tie and blue suit. In a Senate speech he described Mr Zelensky as “a leader who is fighting for his life, fighting for his country’s survival and fighting to preserve the very idea of democracy”.

For Mr Zelensky, whose wartime olive fatigues have become globally recognised, the House overlooked a rule that normally requires men to wear a jacket and tie inside the chamber. AFP, REUTERS