Transcript: Oksana Markarova on "Face the Nation," Dec. 17, 2023

The following is a transcript of an interview with Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S, that aired on Dec. 17, 2023.

MARGARET BRENNAN: With time running out on any additional aid for Ukraine from Congress this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a last minute visit to Washington last week to make his case for more support for the fight against Russia. Oksana Makarova is Ukraine's ambassador to the United States and is back with us. Good morning to you, Ambassador.

UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S. OKSANA MARKAROVA: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Biden said Congress is about to give Vladimir Putin the best Christmas present he could get. How urgent is it that this funding be approved this year?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, time is of the essence and time is already running out because as you know, we already do not have any programs of support except for some presidential drawdown package. But nothing in the budget supports, nothing in humanitarian or energy support. It's great that we have prepared thanks to the big support from the U.S. and you see already all these attacks on Kyiv, on- on other places in Ukraine. They're very similar to last year, but this year, they were not able to cause blackouts for a long time and that's all because we together work so much and because American people helped us to prepare for this. And it's so much cheaper to prevent it rather than to repair it. But we really are counting on our friends and partners here. And you know, I believe in Christmas miracles. I really hope that, you know, this Christmas will show that we- all civilized people, all people who believe in freedom, that we can stay the course much better than autocrats because they are uniting. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: The White House says there's about a billion dollars left and then you mentioned drawdown, that's 4.6 billion, but they've indicated- they don't want to get into that because it could impact U.S. military readiness, would they? Do you know?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, first of all, you know, the reason why we really need all three programs, even for the defense assistance, like USAI, a specific program for Ukraine and foreign military sales, because there is a load that we were buying. The U.S. was buying from American producers here in the U.S., like drones and rockets and interceptors for the air-defense and I can go on and on and you cannot take it using the drawdown. You need to go to industrial base in order for them to produce it. So yes, we do have this drawdown authority and we are trying to gather with your military to find whatever is there to still be used, and not go below your critical readiness, but it's tough. So we really- all the eyes are on- on Congress now and we really hope that there's progress that we hear about, and you know, they will be able to find a solution. And look, as the former Minister of Finance, I negotiated many budgets with my parliament. I understand the importance of the local priorities, and I understand how important the border discussions are. We can just only pray and hope that there will be resolve there, and that the deal that they will be able to reach will allow the fast decisions also on the support to Ukraine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, as you mentioned, the border and the lack of an agreement is holding up everything else because the idea is to package the border with Ukraine aid. During the visit to the United States by your president this past week, he did give an interview to Fox News and he spoke about his meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and President Zelenskyy said, "decision in December, decision in January, decision in February, the big difference is it's not about financing, it's about the morality." Republicans heard your president say that and are now arguing he was telling us it's not all that urgent, we have a few more months. Are they misinterpreting your president?

AMB. MARKAROVA: No, I think the President has been very direct and very open in all the meetings from President to Vice President to Senate to Speaker describing how difficult the fight is, how many combat operations we have on a daily basis every day, including today, on how many drone attacks and other attacks missile attacks on Ukraine we have. 34 Shaheed drones yesterday, just already seven today. He also said that the time was of the essence and he mentioned all the, you know, results that we were able to achieve not only in 2002 on the ground, but also in 2003 in the Black Sea, but he was very clear that we need to stay the course and that we need money and support and- and especially the security assistance, and we need it in October, in November. So no, he was very clear, but of course we cannot get into the internal situation. We cannot tell people what to do, we can only ask Americans to continue support, so time is important.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the White House says there's not a stalemate in Ukraine and the White House declassified intelligence saying Russia lost 87 percent of their military personnel to injury or death since this war began. Those are measured as successes, but as you know, Ukraine's military hasn't made the gains that the U.S. had been hoping for on the battlefield. How do you change the trajectory? 

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, in effect we have. So to be able to hold such a large landline and not allow Russians to take any of our villages and also have the progress on the now left bank also of Dnipro is already a huge success, comparing our Armed Forces, comparing the capabilities. Now we had a lot of success in the Black Sea and I think that's what a lot of people overlook that. Since June and July when the summer campaign started, we were sitting here with you discussing how we were praying for Russia not to pull out from the grain corridor so that we can use it and we were completely at the mercy of them. We don't even need to ask them now. We have the grain corridor come- because we have, a, degraded their fleet so much. We got them all the way to the to the to their own ports from the Crimean ports, and it's a huge counter progress in the counter offensive.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will continue to watch that Ambassador, thank you for being here. We'll be right back.