Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House on Thursday (26) could be his last chance to convince a receptive US president of his country’s war aims.
The precise details of the “victory plan” that Zelensky intends to present in separate meetings to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are unknown, having been kept secret until presented to US leaders.
But according to people briefed on its broad outlines, the plan reflects the Ukrainian leader’s urgent calls for more immediate help in countering Russia’s invasion. Mr. Zelensky is also prepared to press for longer-term security guarantees that can withstand changes in American leadership ahead of what is expected to be a tight presidential election between Ms. Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The plan, people familiar with it said, serves as Mr. Zelensky’s response to growing war fatigue even among his staunchest Western allies. It will argue that Ukraine can still win — and does not need to cede territory taken by Russia for the fighting to end — if sufficient assistance is provided quickly.
That includes again asking for permission to fire Western-supplied long-range weapons deeper into Russian territory, a line Biden was once loathe to cross but has recently appeared more open to as he comes under increasing pressure to slow down.
Even if Biden decides to allow long-range fires, it is unclear whether the policy change will be announced publicly.
Biden has traditionally taken his time in deciding whether to provide Ukraine with new capabilities. But with the November election potentially heralding a major shift in America’s approach to war if Trump wins, Ukrainian — and many American — officials believe there is little time to waste.
Trump has said he will be able to “solve” the war once he takes office and has suggested he will end US support for Kiev’s war effort.
“These cities are gone, gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal he could have made that wasn’t better than where you are now. We have a country that has been destroyed, impossible to rebuild,” Trump said during a campaign speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina, on Wednesday (25).
Comments like those gave new weight to Thursday’s Oval Office talks, according to U.S. and European officials, who described an emergency imperative for assistance to Ukraine while Biden is still in office.
As part of Zelensky’s visit, the US is expected to announce a major new security package, which will likely delay shipments of the equipment due to stock shortages, the CNN previously, according to two U.S. officials. On Wednesday, the U.S. announced a $375 million package.
The president previewed Zelensky’s visit to the White House a day earlier, declaring on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly that his administration was “determined to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to prevail in the fight for survival.”
“Tomorrow I will announce a series of actions to accelerate support for Ukraine’s military – but we know that Ukraine’s future victory is about more than what happens on the battlefield, it is also about what Ukrainians do to make the most of a free and independent future that so many have sacrificed so much for,” he said.
Anxiety about the future of American support has colored many of Zelensky’s visits to Washington. When I visited the White House last year, the goal was in part to pressure Republican leaders in Congress to approve billions of dollars in new aid.
The aid was eventually approved, but support for Ukraine among Trump allies is low. While Zelensky will visit Capitol Hill on Thursday, he will not meet with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“This war has destroyed the basic vitality of Russia. If you look at the huge number of Russians killed and wounded, a million Russians leaving the country, yes, their war machine is working, but their economy is being hollowed out,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on MSNBC. “So I think that in time, whether it’s Putin or the people around him, they will see the futility of continuing to try to do this. It’s up to us to help him have that day.”
Looking to develop relationship with Harris
Zelensky’s separate meeting with Harris on Thursday — scheduled to take place after the Ukrainian leader wraps up his meeting with Biden — signals his desire to further develop what would be their most important leadership relationship if she wins.
In the weeks since taking over the political baton from Biden, Harris and her aides have gone to great lengths to insist that on major foreign policy issues there will be no change between the vice president and the outgoing president.
The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia is no exception, they say, insisting that Ukraine would continue to have unwavering US support against Russian aggression under a Harris presidency.
The vice president’s face-to-face meeting with Zelensky on Thursday would mark their sixth meeting since the war began in February 2022. Just days before the Russian strikes began in February 2022, the vice president also saw Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference, where the two discussed Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine and the possibility of a war breaking out.
In her remarks at the Democratic National Convention last month, Harris was deliberate in taking credit for the U.S. response.
“Five days before Russia attacked Ukraine, I met with President Zelensky to warn him about Russia’s planned invasion. I helped mobilize a global response – more than 50 countries – to defend ourselves against Putin’s aggression,” she said. “And as president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”
The vice president’s advisers say Trump’s public statements about the war in Ukraine could not make clearer the vastly different foreign policy worldviews of the vice president and the former president. (It seems unlikely that Trump will sit down with the Ukrainian leader, despite saying last week that they would “probably” meet.)
The Trump campaign has criticized Zelensky over a New Yorker interview published Sunday in which Zelensky called vice presidential candidate JD Vance “too radical.”
“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice. This brings us back to the question of the cost and who bears it. The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable,” Zelensky said in the interview. “For us, these are dangerous signals coming from a potential vice president.”
Trump alluded to the North Carolina comments on Wednesday.
“The President of Ukraine is in our country. He is making nasty slander against his favorite president, me,” he said.
There is a quiet recognition, even within the Biden administration, that any assurances Zelensky may receive from Biden and Harris this week about the U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine could be in vain under a different American president.
At the signing of a new defense pact between the US and Ukraine on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Italy in June, Zelensky was asked what contingency plan he might have for precisely such a scenario.
“If the people are with us, any leader will be with us in this fight for freedom,” Zelensky replied.
This content was originally published in Zelensky appeals to Biden and Harris in the final stretch of the White House campaign on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
