Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House to present his wartime "victory plan" in the face of US President Joe Biden's announcement of an $8 billion surge in military aid to fight Russia.
"Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way," Biden said Thursday during Zelensky's visit to the Oval Office, thanking him for presenting the so-called victory plan. Dressed in his trademark military-style outfit, Zelensky countered that "we deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side."
But Zelensky's visit was soon overshadowed by a confrontation with Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for US president, in a sign of how the election could affect the aid that flows Kyiv's way from its biggest supporter. Zelensky needs to rally greater support for his war effort as Biden faces a hard fight to get assistance to Ukraine ahead of the contentious vote, during which Biden's Vice President, Kamala Harris, will clash against Trump.
The Democrat promised lawmakers to authorize nearly $8 billion of military aid while pledging to continue almost $5.5 billion set to expire at the end of the U.S. fiscal year on Monday. The president claimed that the "surge in security assistance for Ukraine" would "help Ukraine win this war." He also said that Washington would give the long-range munition Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) to Ukraine and asked for a summit of allies in Germany in October.
The White House was downplaying Ukraine's hopes that the visit by Zelensky would bring a long-sought goal: permission to use long-range, Western-made missiles against Russian territory. "I'm not expecting there to be any new announcements on this particular action or a decision coming out of this meeting," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Harris was to privately meet Zelensky at the White House on Thursday. Zelensky held a session with the US Congress, where his administration claimed he had unveiled his victory plan, and he made an obstinate speech in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
On his visit, Zelensky has drawn new nuclear saber-rattling from Moscow, which has repeatedly cautioned the West against supplying Ukraine with long-range armaments. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to strengthen Moscow's rules governing the use of atomic weapons in the event of a "massive" air attack. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken termed the nuclear threat as "totally irresponsible, while EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said that Putin was making a "gamble with his nuclear arsenal".
Two and a half years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces keep on advancing in eastern Ukraine, creating increasingly difficult circumstances on the battlefield for Kyiv, and this makes the US presidential election only a new source of uncertainty concerning Washington's backing-especially if polls indicating that Zelensky already clashes with Trump and the Republicans are borne out.
He was to meet Zelensky in the course of a US visit; however, those talks seem put into mothballs now. Trump has faulted Zelensky with responsibility for his refusal to negotiate with Moscow and added that billion-dollar tranche are being sent from the US to Kyiv in vain. In an election rally on Wednesday, the Republican described the Ukrainian President as "probably the greatest salesman on Earth."
Republicans went ballistic after Zelensky made a visit to an arms manufacturing factory in Biden's home state this week, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has called for the ambassador to Ukraine to be fired. Zelensky also provided Republicans with fodder after he publicly accused The New Yorker magazine of claiming that Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, didn't understand the war well enough. Trump has repeated many of Putin's talking points as if it was culpable US policy that led to the Russian invasion and, for years, demonized Zelensky. The US has committed around $175 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine during the war over the objections of the Republicans.
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