Congress returned to session today working to avert a partial government shutdown and negotiate a wartime Aid package in Ukraine's fight against Russia the money is currently being held congresswoman Mikie Sherrill was part of a delegation that recently traveled to Ukraine marking the war's 2-year anniversary this week she held an event at the ukrainian-american cultural center of New Jersey to share her experience and press her colleagues to immediately pass the funding senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports we are at an inflection point right now A really critical inflection point where we can either choose to stand with our allies or we can surrender to a brutal dictator whose vision for Conquest goes beyond Ukraine's borders congresswoman Mikie Sherrill Mikie Sherrill attended the Munich security conference in Germany last week along with a large bipartisan group of lawmakers she spoke directly with Ukrainian president pres Vladimir zalinsky and shared that conversation with Folks at a Ukrainian Church in whipy where she urged the us to continue its financial support of Ukraine I met with a president who was committed who was Resolute who was determined who was going to continue to fight along with the people of Ukraine no matter what but the ukrainians are asking the US for more support as they've recently had to withdraw troops from two more Villages near the Eastern donet region losing ground because they lacked the Munitions needed to hold the Russians a $60 billion Aid package for Ukraine has cleared the US Senate with bipartisan support but it's stuck in the Republican controlled house right now this wounded Ukrainian Soldier said that Aid would change everything losing a lot of soldiers and a lot of solders getting killed and wounded uh because we don't have enough of weapons to fight President Biden and vice president kamla Harris met with leaders of both houses yesterday to discuss the looming government shutdown a major piece of that conversation was aid for Ukraine which got tense according to reports Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had this to say to house Speaker Mike Johnson get it done I told him this is one of the moments I said I've been around here a long time it's may be four or five times that history is looking over your shoulder and if you don't do the right thing whatever the immediate politics are you will regret it Johnson told reporters yesterday he believes we must take care of America's needs first it's being held hostage by minority of people in Congress significant and growing minority of politicians who are ignoring the obvious this is not spin or hyperbole on January 23rd 2023 Sergey lavaro the Russian foreign minister held a press conf conference and openly declared that Russia's assault on Ukraine was a war with the West intended to create what he calls a multipolar world Sherrill and all those at the Munich security conference learned the morning the conference started that alexe navali had died in Russian prison naval's wife was there with them anticipating that she would be talking about his ongoing work and instead she was talking about the brutality of his death if there was anything that put a finer point on why the ukrainians are fighting and why we are supporting them I'm not sure what it is a nation where simply speaking against the government gets you a death sense congresswoman Sherrill is back in Washington today and plans to sit down with house Speaker Mike Johnson to share with him the details of her conversation with president zalinski and what was shared here at the Ukrainian Church in New Jersey she said she does believe this bill will pass the house in whippy I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News