September 26, 2024, 11:09 PM
September 26, 2024, 11:09 PM
Volodymyr Zelensky met this Thursday with Joe Biden at the White House, in the midst of a hectic dispute with presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a few weeks before the November elections in the United States.
Republicans in Congress reacted angrily to the Ukrainian president’s decision to visit a weapons factory in Scranton – Biden’s hometown and a key electoral stop in the swing state of Pennsylvania – along with several top Democrats.
Furthermore, it now appears that Zelensky will not meet with Trump as expected.
Before their meeting, both leaders said they would focus on Zelensky’s “victory plan,” which Kyiv said will pressure Russia to find a diplomatic way out of the war.
Previously, Biden had announced a $7.9 billion military assistance package for Ukraine.
A controversial visit
Zelensky’s visit, accompanied by Democratic leaders, to a munitions factory in the key state of Pennsylvania has angered top Republicanswho described it as a partisan campaign event.
In a public letter, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said the visit was “designed to help Democrats” and claimed that it amounted to “electoral interference.”
He also demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington, who helped organize the visit.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee also announced it would investigate whether Zelensky’s trip was an attempt to use a foreign leader. to benefit Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
His Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump, mocked Zelensky at a campaign rally, referring to him as “the best salesman in the world” and accused him of refusing to “make a deal” with Moscow.
During a rally on Tuesday, Trump also praised Russia’s military capabilities, saying: “They beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon; that’s what they do, they fight.”
Ancient rivalry
For some time now, the relationship between Trump and Zelensky has been conflictive. In 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for attempting to pressure Ukraine’s leader into obtaining damaging information about a political rival.
Republican anger marred a week in which Zelensky twice addressed the United Nations, intensifying efforts to persuade the United States and other allies to increase support for Ukraine, more than two and a half years after the invasion of Ukraine. large scale of Russia.
While the details of Zelensky’s “victory plan” to stop the war have been kept secret, the strategy is likely to contain calls for continued military and financial support, as well as security guarantees.
Zelensky also needs US support to fire long-range missiles of Western manufacture in Russian territory, support that Biden has not wanted to offer so far.
Before closed-door talks began at the White House on Thursday, Biden said, “Let me be clear: Russia will not prevail in the war…Ukraine will prevail.”
He also promised to support Kyiv “on its path to membership in both the EU and NATO.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky thanked the US “for its unwavering bipartisan support.”
nuclear threat
With Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine, many experts believe that the outcome of Zelensky’s meeting with Biden will be key in his attempt to shore up US support before the November elections.
On the eve of the meeting at the White House, Vladimir Putin announced a plan to review Moscow’s nuclear doctrineto allow Russia to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear States if they have the support of nuclear States.
Putin’s spokesman later clarified that this was a “specific signal” to the West.
Hours before his meeting with Zelensky, President Biden announced an “increased security assistance to Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war.”
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