Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Congress to approve more U.S. military and humanitarian financial aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

A day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Blinken was back in Washington to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The panel was reviewing the $60.4 billion budget request for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development that is part of the Biden administration’s overall $5.8 trillion budget proposal. 

In March, Congress approved a $13.6 billion package for Ukraine aid. The new budget proposal includes an additional $1.6 billion for the war-torn country. And Blinken said an additional funding request is likely.

“Fully funding it is critical, in my judgment, to ensuring that Russia’s war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for the Kremlin and serves as a powerful lesson to those who might consider following its path,” Blinken said.

Blinken said that during their visit to Ukraine, he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saw countryside “the Russian government thought that it could seize in a matter of weeks” that is now firmly Ukraine’s, as well as “signs of a vibrant city coming back to life” in the capital of Kyiv.

“The Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv,” he said. “And for all the suffering that they’ve endured, for all the carnage that Russia’s brutal invasion continues to inflict, Ukraine was and will continue to be a free and independent country.”

Blinken said he was proud that the United States’ support for Ukraine has played a role in the military’s success, leading to an “even firmer conviction that we must not let up.”

There appeared to be widespread bipartisan support among the committee members for more aid to Ukraine, with some senators choosing instead to focus their questions on issues involving China and Iran.  

The secretary of state said intelligence reports show international sanctions against the Kremlin and its allies are devastating the Russian economy, which he said has contracted about 15%.

“I think what we’re seeing is that people increasingly in Russia are feeling the effects of the disastrous decision by (President Vladimir) Putin to attack Ukraine,” Blinken said. “For example, upwards of 600 companies have left Russia, including many of the major consumer brands that we all know and are familiar with. Increasingly, Russians are finding the things they thought they could take for granted, they can’t. They can’t buy the things they’ve been used to buying for the last almost 30 years.

“All of this is going to be felt more and more,” he added.

Blinken said it’s critical that Europe reduce its dependence on Russian energy, an area in which the United States is offering help.

In early March, the U.S. banned Russian oil, which accounted for 8% of its oil imports. That, however, has proved to be a more complicated proposition in Europe.

Blinken said he thinks there will be progress in the coming weeks on European countries cutting liquified natural gas imports, noting the U.S. has redirected “significant amounts” to Europe. He, however, conceded that cutting oil remains a bigger challenge.

“Europeans have, I think, genuinely ambitious plans to move away from this reliance on Russian energy,” he said. “The challenge is to put them into effect. And the other challenge is that, in some cases, this is not — no pun intended — like flipping a light switch. It is a process, and that’s what we’re working with them on implementing.”

During their visit to Kyiv on Monday, Blinken and Austin announced the U.S. will reestablish its diplomatic presence in the Ukrainian capital after relocating embassy staff to Poland just before the war.

On Tuesday, Blinken said diplomats are returning to Ukraine this week, and “they will begin to assess how we can most effectively and securely reopen the embassy in Kyiv.”