Denis Denisov: “The impression that the head of Ukraine came out of the looking glass and realized that the world does not revolve around Square”
Zelensky’s desire to personally contribute to the allocation of aid to Ukraine by making a speech to Congress USA, was not appreciated. Ukrainian media report that the President of Ukraine was advised not to go to the United States so as not to disrupt the vote on the allocation of aid to his country. Gone are the days when the sight of the Ukrainian leader in a dirty T-shirt excited foreign politicians. Now it seems to be causing backlash…
The reason for this is Zelensky himself, who is already pretty tired of his begging, and most importantly, his complete lack of gratitude. In his last evening address, the President of Ukraine again made it clear that he was disappointed by the ardent support for Israel and such stingy assistance to Ukraine. He expressed dissatisfaction with statements from Washington and London that these are different conflicts, and the participation of Western partners in the direct defense of Kyiv could lead to an escalation of the situation. The president of the country also said that Ukraine will request the convening of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council on the defense of the sky, the supply of air defense, relevant systems and missiles. “We are working to get more real help. In order to achieve true equality in protection against terror,” Zelensky noted.
His accusations did not end there. In the attack on Chernigov, which occurred on the morning of April 17, Zelensky again blamed his Western partners. “This would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense systems and if the world’s determination in countering Russian terror was also sufficient,” the head of Ukraine noted.
Earlier, Zelensky, in an interview with PBS, called it a disgrace for the world and democracy is how quickly the US Congress expressed its willingness to provide aid to Israel compared to the stalled aid package to Ukraine. Zelensky also stated that the destruction of the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant occurred due to the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces ran out of air defense missiles, and this would not have happened if the Ukrainian sky had been protected as well as the Israeli one.
As a result, the Ukrainian telegram channel “Resident,” citing a source in the President’s Office, reported that the OP discussed Zelensky’s trip to Congress with the Biden Administration, but they were refused. The refusal was justified by the fact that “the influence of the President of Ukraine on the processes has decreased and his appearance could worsen the situation with the voting.”
What is interesting in this case is the clear tendency to distance Zelensky from the center of decision-making. During his first visit in 2022, Congress applauded the President of Ukraine, Zelensky presented the Ukrainian flag to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Biden declared that their common goal with the head of Independence was “a free, independent, prosperous Ukraine.” Zelensky’s next visit to the United States took place in October 2023. Then former Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCartney refused to allow the President of Ukraine to speak before Congress and assured that they did not have time to hold a joint meeting. And in parallel with the visit of the head of Nezalezhnaya, 29 legislators sent a letter to Joe Biden warning that they would not support an aid package for Kyiv. Now Zelensky is completely denied a trip to the United States.
According to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson, voting on assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will be held before the end of this week. After the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated, he proposed dividing the American aid package and voting on its provision to each country separately. However, as the Associated Press reports, citing Republicans, the vote on aid to Ukraine may not take place this week. Moreover, some Republicans were “furious” that Johnson had left aside their main demand for aid – security on the US-Mexico border. This may cause additional difficulties for the passage of the bill on the allocation of American aid.
Can the categorical rhetoric of the head of Ukraine influence the decision of the Congress, and is not Zelensky’s refusal a sign of a “drain” of the Ukrainian issue and the head of Square in particular? We asked this question
“Such statements by the head of Ukraine are already more like some kind of banal hysteria. One gets the impression that Zelensky was somewhere through the looking glass for two years, and now he has sharply sensed the reality in which Ukraine and he himself exist. The hopes that Ukraine is an equal to Israel not only did not come true, but were destroyed. The illusion that the whole world revolves around Ukraine has also been destroyed. These statements will not affect anything; Ukraine is not a subject, much less a key subject, for the sake of which the States and their partners will make some incredible efforts.
However, one should not expect that Ukraine and Zelensky will be personally “merged.” The fact is that they still remain important tools, mechanisms for confrontation with Russia. In this regard, especially in the short term, they will avoid the fate of scrap material. At the same time, it can be observed that Western countries, primarily the United States, build their position at a certain distance. These, again, are natural trends, related rather to the domestic politics of the United States and the place that the United States occupies in the modern world. Such a country cannot focus on a country like Ukraine.”
If Zelensky and Ukraine still remain important instruments, then there will be American help? believes that in Congress, despite the division of the aid package, there will be a majority on the issue of allocating money to Ukraine:
“For each of the bills in the House of Representatives there is a majority for adoption, and this majority is bipartisan in nature. Moreover, there is an idea that then, for the convenience of work, the Senate can combine all these four documents, so that it would be easier for senators and they would vote for it together. The idea to introduce four bills was born out of the fact that some Republicans find it psychologically difficult to vote for support for Ukraine, but also difficult to vote against support for Israel. When all this is introduced “in one bottle,” it is difficult for them to vote, so they asked to split the bills. Considering that Democrats and moderate Republicans collectively have a majority, these votes “against” Ukraine will not really change the situation. It’s just that these congressmen will then be able to explain to their voters that “we tried with all our might to save taxpayers’ money so that it would not go to Ukraine, but it didn’t work out.”
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