CNN — 

Fresh from a trip to the bloody front lines in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky strode onto the ornate US House floor on Wednesday evening in his signature green military wear to shore up his supply line.

On the dais where heads of state usually sport suits, Zelensky embraced the look of a warrior as he used confident English to claim “joint victory” in what he said was the defeat of Russia in the “battle for minds of the world.”

Although he did not mention the elephant in the room, the speech was a clear plea to Republican lawmakers, who will control the House in January, to stay with Ukraine.

“Your money is not charity,” he said, calling it an “investment” in democracy.

A speech before power changes hands and a plea for more money

If the speech felt rushed – most lawmakers weren’t told about it until Tuesday – it was. 

Wednesday was perhaps the last possible day Zelensky could have addressed a joint meeting of Congress before Republicans, some of whom are slowly growing tired with the largesse of America’s support for his country, take control of the House next month. The US has provided more than $21 billion in defense assistance in less than a year. That includes $1.8 billion in a new weapons deal announced when Zelensky met President Joe Biden at the White House earlier Wednesday.

“Is it enough? Honestly, not really,” Zelensky joked in his speech to Congress, drawing on his background as a comedian. 

Later he observed that Ukrainians will be celebrating Christmas by candlelight, “not because it’s romantic, no, but because there will be no electricity.” Russia has destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and electrical grid. 

“Even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out,” Zelenksy said.

Establishing the US and Ukraine as allies

The historian Doris Kearns Goodwin compared Zelensky’s address to one given by Winston Churchill on Boxing Day in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“He’s already established in the American people’s mind we’re in this together, but then pointing out that they’ll do the fighting for us – ‘just give us the tools and we will finish the job.’ That’s what Churchill said,” Kearns Goodwin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday evening.

That’s an important perception for the US since Ukraine, importantly, is not an official member of NATO, the treaty alliance Putin fears. One major reason the US has not provided more direct aid to Ukraine is concern that Putin would be provoked against NATO.