 as a weapon. And the Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world. I mean, that's sincerely not just inspire us, but inspire the world with their courage and how they have chosen the resilience and resolve for their future. And the American people have stood proudly with them, Democrats and Republicans, together with our allies in Europe and Japan and other places, to make sure you have the financial, humanitarian, and security assistance that is needed. And we're going to talk about that today. And we're going to continue to strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend itself, particularly air defense. And that's why we're going to be providing Ukraine with a Patriot missile battery and training your forces to be able to accurately use it. Together, our partners are also going to continue to impose costs on the Kremlin. And we'll support Ukraine in pursuing a just peace. President Zelensky, the United States stands with the great people in Ukraine. We stand with you. You've been a great leader. And by the way, we have a famous thing that occurs once a year. We picked a man of the year in Time Magazine. You are the man of the year in the United States of America. It's a welcome. We have a lot to talk about. Floor is yours, sir. Thank you so much. Mr. President, great honor for me to be here. Your journalists, I thank you so much for your invitation. I really wanted to confel it. Mr. President knows about it that I couldn't do because the situation was so difficult. And now, if I'm calm, I came in that we control the situation and because of support. And first of all, because of your support, and I really understand that we have very important topics. I'm going to discuss them, everything, so many challenges in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world, and from energy to the situation on the battlefield. But first of all, I appreciate it from my heart, my nation, strong nations, all the appreciation to you. First of all, Mr. President, for your big support and leadership, of course, the words, not the word. It's a bit about it. That is your leadership. Thank you, first of all. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Of course, thanks to my partners in support. Thanks to Congress, and thanks to just people. I really appreciate it. I think it's very difficult to understand what does it mean when we say appreciate, but you really have to feel it. And thank you so much, great honor to be here. And yesterday I was called and spoke to Taylor about it and to give you something. One guy, he's really, really, he's a work. And he asked me to pass his work to President Biden. You will understand. He is the captain of Heimer's Battery. Yes, he's very brave, and he said, give it to a very brave president. And I won, yes. I didn't write it, Mr. President. I got it, it's not mine, it's in Ukrainian language, but here are the translation. It's for him. His name is, I have his name, I could contact him. Yes, yes. I'm sure, but much appreciate my service before the Iraq. It is President Joe Biden welcoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office, truly a remarkable moment there. And if I may, with what seems to be a very candid warm exchange and the Ukrainian president thanking not just the American president, not just yours, Congress, but addressing the American people specifically. This obviously takes us to the conversation we held before the two leaders convened this brief encounter in front of the press. So let's go back to our distinguished panel and now Dan Perry, without further ado, what do you make of this exchange at the beginning of the one-on-one meeting between Biden and Zelensky? I think that was clearly one of the images of the year that we saw here. I think we'll remember it for many years. And even though one often equates sophistication with skepticism about political leaders, what I saw from Biden, I think, was a genuine appreciation of Zelensky and commitment to Ukraine. I spoke of the courage and resilience and resolve of the Ukrainian people. And from Zelensky, as you say, genuine sounding gratitude to the American president, Congress and people, well-placed gratitude because he is getting $100 billion. And I think his visit to the U.S. probably did accelerate some of the promises of and delivery of the ammunitions and the money and the aid. And it's been said, Michael Tracy, I think, said, this is about a hypothesis, masquerading as a fact. But in my view, most policy comes from hypotheses and the hypothesis here is a not implausible one that what is at stake is not just the interests of Ukraine, but the interests of the U.S. in as much as if Russia were allowed to get away with a theft in Ukraine, its aggression would then proceed towards other countries as well. And I think that's really why the U.S. has invested so much effort and money and taken such chances. And also, by the way, we're all very impressed by the $100 billion. And I guess it's the 45 in the most recent tranche, but remember that the U.S. economy is a $23 trillion economy. The U.S. defense budget is almost $2 trillion. At the end of the day, it is a drop in the sea. The real cost that the U.S. is incurring is the risk of nuclear conflagration with Russia. In not abandoning Ukraine, that's the actual cost. And I can only hope that Putin's bluffing when he speaks of nuclear deterrent. That makes all of us, I'm safely assuming. Andrei Dobryansky, listening to both Biden and perhaps more importantly, Zelensky there at the Oval. And I'm going, even though you said from the get-go of our discussion that this entire trip is aimed at the foreign audience, not at the audience back home, what is Zelensky hoping to come back with to Kiev? Well, again, we do know that there's an enormous amount of material weapon systems that were announced earlier today, including the Patriot system we talked about earlier. But it's very important as well. It's not just Zelensky, thank you, the American people. We sit here in the United States, full of the privilege of never ever in our history, we have a foreign invader on our territory as Ukraine is right now. So what we are giving, and I'll back up the words of Mr. Perry, the fact that it is a drop in the bucket, what Ukraine is giving is their citizens daily war crimes against their citizens, whether it's rapes against women and children, whether it's just everyday people in civilian areas being bombed. People who are freezing on a regular basis because of Russia's attack against civilian infrastructure. That is what Ukraine is giving. What the United States is giving is simply a small part of its budget. So I expect in Congress, not only will we see a repetition of Zelensky giving a gift to members of Congress, but they will likely be thanking Zelensky to thank the Ukrainian people for defending democracy as we all understand this is really what the war is about. Michael Tracy as we're nearing the end of our time together today, Vladimir Putin, obviously watching closely every head and gesture, every word that is said or not being said in DC at the moment. You have indicated earlier that we need to stop trying to get into his mind, but it is unlikely to assume it will go unnoticed from the Kremlin standpoint. Is this visiting DC? Well, sure, by Putin convened a major defense ministry meeting today and dispatched Dmitry Medvedev to a surprise meeting in Beijing with President Xi. So clearly they're kind of counter-choreographing or counter-programming what's coming out of Washington DC. But I did want to say at this idea that $100 billion in Ukraine-related funds being appropriated in less than a year is just a drop in the bucket is preposterous. Already in September of this year, Ukraine became the biggest recipient of US, quote, security aid since South Vietnam. Iraq and Afghanistan, their respective military operations, those governments' militaries never received anything close to how much money has been dispatched to Ukraine in terms of security aid since February. So this is a major US intervention and to trivialize it is, again, a PR tactic that is quite successful in that it's secured all this money, but it really doesn't align very accurately with the facts. And looking at this meeting and watching as we've been on this segment, the emotional value that's already being ascribed to it as incredibly resonant and potent and everybody's kind of in awe of how honest and forthright these two leaders are. Well, I mean, that's another indication of the efficacy of the PR strategy. So let's see if nothing else, he's a PR master, I gotta give him that. Yeah, that's something we can all agree on that's for certain. And Michael Tracy, Dan Perry, Andre Dropriansky, thank you very much for joining us.