Zelenskyy’s push for support runs into US campaign tensions
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s push this week for more support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion has hit political turbulence in the U.S. as the presidential campaign heats up.
He won’t get a hoped-for meeting with Donald Trump – who’s been skeptical of aid to Ukraine – while he’s in the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly and meetings in Washington, people close to the Republican nominee said, asking not to be identified to discuss matters than aren’t public. Zelenskyy’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Ukrainian president has touted a new “victory plan” that he’s set to present to President Joe Biden in Washington Thursday, seeking additional support for the fight, which is heading into its third winter with no sign of a breakthrough on the battlefield. But he started his visit to the U.S. with moves that alienated the Trump camp, according to the people. Some Republicans in Congress were also critical.
First was Zelenskyy’s weekend stop at an artillery-shell factory in Biden’s Pennsylvania hometown, attended by the state’s Democratic governor. Then came an interview where he questioned Trump’s pledges to negotiate a quick end to the war if elected. The appearance in a key battleground state drew the anger of Republicans on Capitol Hill, some of whom saw it as potentially beneficial to Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The House Oversight Committee said it’s opening an investigation into what it called “the Biden-Harris Administration’s use of taxpayer funded resources to fly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Pennsylvania to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Republican defense hawks in the House, including the chairs of key committees, demanded the Biden administration release an unclassified version of its strategy in Ukraine.
The administration submitted a classified strategy months after the congressionally mandated deadline, the lawmakers said. “The decision to classify it is unacceptable,” they said in a statement.
Several top House Republicans planned to leave Washington Wednesday because of a hurricane in the Southeast and would miss Zelenskyy’s visit to Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, will meet with Zelenskyy at the Capitol on Thursday.
In a speech to the U.N. Wednesday, Zelenskyy called on other nations to back his peace plan and rejected alternatives that he said would only embolden Russia. “Any parallel or alternative attempts to seek peace are, in fact, efforts to achieve a lull instead of an end to the war,” he said.
Ahead of the Washington meetings, allied officials signaled that they don’t expect Zelenskyy’s so-called victory plan to yield a breakthrough in the war, which is heading into its third winter.
One person familiar with Zelenskyy’s conversations with foreign leaders, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said there were no real surprises in the victory plan and it wasn’t a major game-changer. Another official described it as a “wish list.”
Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday the plan aims to put his country in a stronger position for future diplomatic talks with Russia. Kyiv has worried that a cease-fire without clear guarantees would leave Russian President Vladimir Putin free to strike again after re-arming.
Trump has repeatedly promised to deliver a negotiated end to the war if elected but he hasn’t provided details of how that would happen.
“Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with a hundred billion dollars. I think he’s the greatest salesman on Earth,” Trump said Tuesday in a speech in Georgia – overstating the size of U.S. aid packages. “But we’re stuck in that war, unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated. I’ll get out.”
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(With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.)