(CNSNews.com) - The t-shirt-attired Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress by video on Wednesday and asked for the United States to send warplanes into the sky over Ukraine to create a “humanitarian no-fly zone” or, failing that, to provide Ukraine itself with warplanes.
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky told Congress.
“Russian troops have already fired nearly 1,000 missiles at Ukraine. Countless bombs. They use drones to kill us with precision,” he said.
“This is a terror that Europe has not seen for 80 years, and we are asking for a reply, for an answer to this terror from the whole world,” he said.
“Is this a lot to ask for? To create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to save people. Is this too much to ask?” said Zelensky. “A humanitarian no-fly zone, something that Russia would not be able to terrorize our free cities.”
“If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative,” Zelensky continued.
"You know, what kind of defense systems we need, S-300 and other similar systems,” he said. “You know how much depends on the battlefield, on the ability to use aircraft, powerful, stronger aviation to protect our people, our freedom, our land. Aircrafts that can help Ukraine, help Europe. And you know that they exist, and you have them. But they are on earth not in the Ukrainian sky. They do not defend our people.
“‘I have a dream,’” Zelensky said, using the famous words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “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, which means exactly the same. The same you feel when you hear the words, 'I have a dream.'”