Speaking in Washington, four months before an election marked by new uncertainties following President Joe Biden’s fragile performance in the debate, he directed his message at Republicans, whose anti-NATO leader appears to be in a better position to regain the presidency.
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The U. S. president, Zelensky added, will have to be “intransigent in the defense of democracy, intransigent in the face of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his clique. “
Zelensky has proven himself to be a professional foreign relations navigator in protecting his war-torn country, publicly cajoling and complaining loudly to get the military assistance he wants to protect against Russia.
This development in Washington comes in the context of a new aid commitment (Biden announced on Tuesday that dozens of air defense systems would be sent to Ukraine through NATO allies), but also on the eve of an election that could lead to a replacement. of power. Zelensky said he hoped the race would not result in political reform.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks at the Ronald Reagan Institute on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magaña)
The Ukrainian leader sought to downplay the potential consequences of a victory for Donald Trump, who is skeptical of NATO and has criticized the Biden administration’s aid to kyiv for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy spoke at the Reagan Institute, named after Republican icon Ronald Reagan, and his call for help was aimed at an audience of GOP heavyweights, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Zelensky will meet with lawmakers at the Capitol on Wednesday.
“I hope that if the other Americans elect President Trump, I hope that his policy toward Ukraine does not change,” Zelensky said in a question-and-answer consultation with Fox News host Bret Baier after his speech. “I hope the United States never leaves NATO. “
Otherwise, he said, “the world will lose many countries” that “count on the United States. ”
Zelenskyy, who will have a separate meeting with Biden on Thursday, said he did not know Trump well but had intelligent meetings with him when he was president. However, he stressed that they had not reveled in the war between Russia and Ukraine as a whole and that it was only a shared delight in which one could simply perceive “whether you can count on someone or not”.
As president, Trump was impeached in late 2019 by the House of Representatives after pressuring Zelensky to announce an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter, while withholding $400 million in military aid from Ukraine. At the time, Biden was organizing a crusade to compete against Trump in the 2020 election. Trump was eventually acquitted by the Senate.
Despite the new aid announced Tuesday and the warm reception he received from the Reagan Institute’s largely Republican audience, Zelensky finds that his coveted top prize — the club in the military alliance — remains elusive. NATO’s European and North American members are in no rush to admit Ukraine, especially since it is engaged in active hostilities with Russia that could drag them into a larger war.
Zelensky, who celebrated as a defender of democracy in Washington after Russia’s 2022 invasion but was forced to plead his case before U. S. lawmakers last year, once again found herself in the U. S. capital as a bridesmaid.
At the NATO summit, he seeks to navigate a turbulent American political landscape as Biden attempts to show his strength on a global level and his ability to continue leading the alliance’s most vital member, despite the post-debate discomfort of some of his fellow Democrats about his ability to serve another 4 years.
Meanwhile, Trump criticized his allies for failing to meet their defense spending targets and raised considerations in Europe about the continuation of U. S. aid to NATO and Ukraine. Russia will gain ground against exhausted Ukrainian forces.
At a rally Tuesday night in Florida, Trump attempted to take credit for the number of NATO member countries that are now meeting their defense spending targets, saying that when he first addressed NATO members as president, “nobody pays. “The surprising increase, however, only came after the start of the war in Ukraine and when Biden was president.
Meanwhile, the stakes for Zelensky have never been higher. On Monday, Russia launched its most intense bombing raid on kyiv in just four months and one of the deadliest of the war, destroying a wing of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital.
Against this backdrop, Biden announced that the United States and other NATO members would send dozens of air defense systems to Ukraine in the coming months, adding at least four of the rugged Patriot systems that were desperately helping counter Russian advances in the war.
In the coming days, Zelensky will hear the refrain of countries that have injected weapons into his country, despite recent damaging delays in the United States and Europe to offer more aid.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country is NATO’s second-richest, said that “Germany tirelessly supports Ukrainians, especially in these difficult times. “
But an invitation to join the alliance is not an option, even if Russia’s latest measures have galvanized Ukraine. NATO will not admit a new member until the conflict is resolved.
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Instead, it will provide Zelensky with what officials call a “bridge to membership. ” This is aimed at setting out the express tasks, adding governmental, economic and rule of law reforms, that Ukraine will have to complete in order to join.
Many in Ukraine see the NATO club as the only way to protect themselves from long-term Russian aggression if the war ends. But the years-long conflict, which has claimed thousands of Ukrainian lives, has left many frustrated and skeptical that their country will ever join the Western alliance.
Although Zelensky is a successful politician on the world stage, his popularity in Ukraine is suffering, which has declined in part because of persistent questions about corruption, analysts say.
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