Zelenskyy’s stirring appeal to conscience: How far should America go?

He invoked Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King.

He portrayed America and Ukraine as having the same dreams and values, and both having known the pain of destruction delivered from the sky. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy rose to the moment in his address to Congress on Wednesday, an unlikely leader who has become the face of the brave Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s brutality – and wants the U.S. to help him stop the ongoing massacre of civilians.

Lawmakers looked riveted as Zelenskyy asked for a humanitarian no-fly zone and, knowing he probably won’t get that, pleaded for more defensive weapons to enable him to save his embattled nation. When he played a video showing quick-cut scenes of life and death, it was impossible not to be moved unless you don’t have a heart. 

Zelenskyy’s English-language finale was hugely effective–so much so that the White House leaked word of another $800 million in weapons for Ukraine, as President Biden outlined in a speech hours later.