Illinois congressmen talk about how the U.S. can best support Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned message to Congress Wednesday asking for aid.

Zelenskyy pleaded for other military aid and more drastic economic sanctions to stop the Russian assault with the fate of his country at stake.

Wearing his now-trademark army green T-shirt, Zelinskyy began his remarks to "Americans, friends" by invoking the destruction the U.S. suffered in 1941 when Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by militants who commandeered passenger airplanes to crash into the symbols of Western democracy and economy.

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Many of those in attendance gave the leader a standing ovation, including Democractic congressmen Brad Schneider and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Zelenskyy has continued to call for a No Fly Zone but President Joe Biden is not agreeing to that.

On Thursday, Schneider shared what the U.S. is doing to help Ukraine.

"We are sending in weapons, sending in surface-to-air missiles, in fact, missiles that have a higher reach to help protect Ukrainians from Russian aircraft," Schneider said. "That is a far cry from a No Fly Zone and I think to be clear, Congress’ responsibility is to decide when the United States does or does not go to war and I think we are doing everything we can to avoid a direct conflict between Russian, NATO and U.S. forces.What we are doing and will continue to do is to give everything we can to the Ukrainian forces to defend themselves and provide humanitarian relief."

Krishnamoorthi said supplying Ukraine in a timely manner is of the essence.

"There is a window of time right now in which to help the Ukrainian government before the Russian forces fully encircle the major cities like Kyiv and so we gotta take advantage of this window and supply them with whatever they need to keep corridors open so that they can keep fighting and get arms and food and water and whatever else they need," Krishnamoorthi said.