Political gridlock on Capitol Hill
may be jeopardizing
the fight against Russia in Ukraine
right now.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky is in Washington
pleading for Congress to approve
more military aid for his country.
Next hour, he's
scheduled to sit down one on one
with President Biden.
This morning,
he met with senators and House
members, arguing
that the political bickering over
Ukraine aid
is exactly what Vladimir Putin
wants to see.
And yet,
so far, Republicans seem unmoved.
Some GOP senators
even walked out of their meeting.
Also today,
we have newly declassified U.S.
intelligence about Russia's strategy
and why the Kremlin is aiming
for a winter stalemate.
We have seen in chief
congressional correspondent Manu Raju.
He is on the Hill along with CNN reporter
Katie Bo Lillis.
Manu, let's start with you.
I mean, as we await
this White House meeting,
what are you hearing on the Hill?
Yeah, nothing has changed, in fact.
The stalemate persists
and there are real fears
that there is aid to Ukraine.
Even to supporters
who back aid to Ukraine
believe that this
will drag into next year,
despite the urgent pleas
by the president of Ukraine,
who is poised to leave
Capitol Hill empty handed.
He met behind closed doors
with House of the Senate
Republicans and Senate Democrats
trying to make his case
about why aid is is is needed.
I'm told that he was expected,
told senators
he expected
that they would eventually come through
and he indicated that the money would be
looked at,
there would be significant accountability
in Ukraine. For federal dollars.
And he met with the speaker of the House
and the House Democratic leader.
But the fact of the matter is
that Republicans are still insisting
that there needs to be a deal to deal
with the
southern border
with Mexico
to tighten immigration restrictions.
They said that must come first
before they agreed
to approving aid to Ukraine,
even as there is no path for a deal
on immigration, as the two sides
remain badly divided.
Something that even staunch supporters
of Ukraine aid,
like Senator Mitt Romney indicated
must be dealt
with first, immigration
before there's a deal on Ukraine.
The reality is
that the House
is not going to take up
a Ukraine bill
unless it includes securing the border
to the level
that existed under
the three prior presidents
when people elect
a Republican majority in the House.
You have to listen
to what they have to say
Are you concerned that if there's
no money,
Ukraine could lose the war to Russia?
Well,
that's always been a big possibility
the whole time.
I mean, I've never thought
they could win to begin with,
especially the way we eased into it.
What are the implications
that if Russia wins,
are you worried about the implications
of Russia wins?
Well, everybody keeps saying
they're going to continue to go
across Europe.
I mean, they can't beat Ukraine
on the eastern side.
How are they going to continue to go
the rest way through through Europe?
I've never believed that scenario.
I think it's
I think it's a good selling point to
send more money
So you're hearing the
divide within the GOP side.
Some like Tommy Tuberville
saying no more money at all for Ukraine.
Others saying at least
there needs to be a deal
on border
security first
before agreeing on aid to Ukraine.
But there is no deal in sight
between the two parties
on border security, which is why
President Solecki,
despite these urgent appeals,
leaving Washington without any aid.
Unclear when and if that may happen.
Martin, thank you so much for the update.
We want to bring in Kitty
a little less now because, Kitty,
you have some new reporting
on this
declassified intelligence report
that was provided to members of Congress.
And it's really providing
startling details
about Russia's losses on the battlefield.
Yes, some pretty staggering numbers
here for us.
This intelligence assessment
provided to Congress
yesterday reports
and I'm going to give you
some of these figures, reports
that of the 360,000 troops
that Russia sent into Ukraine
initially
and that made up their entire standing
ground force
prior to the invasion of those, 315,000
have been lost on the battlefield.
That's an 87%
loss of Russia's
standing ground forces
before the invasion.
Now look important to understand that
Russia has been able
to defray these losses.
They have been able to lean
on, for example, the Wagner group
with some of their contract fighters.
They have also launched
a number of conscription
and mobilizations
to try to sort of
throw more bodies at this fight.
So they have been able
to defray some of these losses.
Still, this assessment morning and again,
I'm going to quote from this directly.
This assessment warning
that the war has sharply set back 15
years of Russian effort
to modernize its ground force.
So huge and important figures.
But again, I think very important
to be reading this
in the context
of what Manu
has just been telling us, of course,
which is that
the real peril for Ukraine here
is that U.S.
funding may run out.
And so I think you're going to hear these
these sort of staggering numbers.
These
these Russian losses
really talked about as evidence
that, look,
the Ukrainians are capable
of exacting costs
against the Russian military
if they are provided
with the military support to get it done.
Putin
sort of hoping that
maybe they can wait this out
and sort of get through the winter.
And, you know that.
Yeah, that's exactly
that's exactly right.
I think one of the other things
that you are seeing,
the intelligence community here
in the United States
watch very carefully
is sort of the way
Vladimir Putin is thinking about
the next 12 months or the next two years.
And right now, the belief
is that Putin believes
that he can essentially outwait the West,
that he's going to be able to sort of
take advantage
of this kind of moment
in which
there are some real divisions
in the domestic politics
in the United States.
And sort of public opinion
seems to be kind of
in flux about supporting Ukraine. Right.
And so I think for for Putin,
there's a real kind of benefit
to let's just sit back, let's wait.
Let's see
if the United States
will get tired of this.
Cabela's, thank you.