White House Spox Trashes Putin for Lying To and ‘Not Feeding’ His Own Troops

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates trashed Russian President Vladimir Putin as a liar who doesn’t feed his own troops, while praising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an inspirational figure who has united his country.

Mr. Bates was a guest on Wednesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Way Too Early, where host Jonathan Lemire asked him to preview President Joe Biden’s response to Zelenskyy’s upcoming address to a joint session of Congress.

Bates detailed the lethal assistance the U.S. is providing, noted Biden’s respect for Zelenskyy, and as he did last week, messaged Putin as a brutal despot who is harming his own troops:

MR. LEMIRE: Much anticipation for President Zelenskyy’s address to Congress coming up right about nine o’clock, and then we’re going to hear from President Biden soon afterwards. We expect to hear from Zelenskyy, a call again for things like a no-fly zone, for more fighter jets to be sent to help out the Ukrainian effort, things that President Biden has refused to do. What will the president’s response be today?

MR. BATES: Well, as you noted, Jonathan, the United States has to date provided $1.2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. We’re making deliveries every day that includes state-of-the-art ground-based missile systems that are denying the Russians air superiority in Ukraine. It includes the Javelin anti-tank missiles that have been halting Russian advances, and the Ukrainian military is making use of that every single day.

What the president is going to announce today is an additional $800 million in national security aid to Ukraine, which we are going to expedite the delivery of. And as you noted, the omnibus that the president signed yesterday includes $13.6 billion in additional assistance to Ukraine. Generally, roughly $3 billion of that is national security and military aid as well. So this is one of the latest ways that we continue to work with them. And the United States is by far the biggest donor to Ukraine in the world when it comes to this kind of state-of-the-art military equipment that is core to their ability to resist this unprovoked and unjustifiable war of choice.

The president has tremendous respect for President Zelenskyy and sees him as someone who has rallied his people against this indefensible invasion and looks forward to hearing from him. They speak regularly. We speak with his team every single day. In many ways, he is the antithesis of Vladimir Putin. You have someone who has stood up against the odds and inspired the world, standing up for democratic values, standing up for their people, unifying their country against someone who has put their own economy into a tailspin, who is lying to their own soldiers, often not feeding them, someone who is increasingly isolated and who is suppressing dissent in their own country with violence.

Watch above via MSNBC.