Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as the Ukrainian leader sought to drum up more support ahead of November’s US elections.
Thursday’s series of meetings in Washington DC came as Zelenskiy called for more US military aid to his troubled country, regardless of who wins the next vote.
Biden and Harris have both pledged continued support for Kiev, while the Republican candidate, former US President Donald Trump, and several active members of his party have continually questioned it.
“The United States will provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war,” Biden said in a statement Thursday before his White House meeting with Zelenskyy.
Biden also pledged to ensure that all funding approved so far for Ukraine is disbursed before he leaves office in January 2025, in what he described as an “increase in security assistance” totaling nearly 8 billions of dollars.
He promised to convene a meeting with other world leaders focused on Ukraine’s defense during a visit to Germany next month. However, he stopped short of greenlighting Ukraine’s long-standing request to fire US-made long-range missiles at Russia.
Later, speaking from the Oval Office alongside Zelensky, Biden said his administration was “making clear that we stand with Ukraine now and in the future.”
Zelensky, in turn, thanked Biden for his support and said that it is important to ensure Ukraine’s future in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
This came a day after the Ukrainian leader, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, again rejected the idea that Ukraine would agree to cede any territory to Russia as part of a peace plan, while warning of a growing nuclear threat from Moscow.
Zelensky urged global leaders not to look for “a way out” that falls short of “true and just peace.” Ukrainian forces, backed by billions of dollars in Western military aid, have largely halted Russia’s offensive in the country’s southwest, while launching their own incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
However, entrenched fighting on the front lines shows no signs of abating, and Kiev has increasingly pushed for permission to use Western weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
Later Thursday, Harris — speaking alongside Zelenskyy at the White House — said she would work to ensure Ukraine’s victory in the war, while also criticizing Trump, her Republican rival in the Nov. 5 election, without naming him.
“There are some” in the United States who would force Ukraine to give up much of its territory and abandon its security relationships with other nations, Harris said.
“These proposals are the same as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and let’s be clear, these are not peace proposals. Instead, these are proposals to surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” he said.
The Biden administration has increasingly sought to foreground Harris’ foreign policy credentials since she took over as the presidential candidate after Biden dropped out of the race in July.
The partisan divide is growing
Zelensky received a much less warm welcome from Republicans during his trip to the United States.
His already difficult relationship with Trump was further strained this week, with the Ukrainian leader criticizing Trump’s campaign boast that he could quickly negotiate a solution to Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022.
In an interview published earlier this week in The New Yorker magazine, Zelenskyy said his “impression is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even though he may think he does.”
He also criticized Trump’s vice president, Senator J.D. Vance, calling him “too radical” for suggesting that Ukraine’s land cession should not be taken off the table in an effort to reach a ceasefire.
Speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump criticized Zelensky for “making nasty little disses against him.”
He went on to place blame for the war’s continuation on Zelensky, saying he “refused to make a deal” and that even a “bad deal” that involved giving up “a little” would have ended the bloodshed.
Despite the rhetoric, Trump said Thursday that he plans to meet with Zelenskiy on Friday morning at Trump Tower in New York. Although the two leaders spoke by phone in July, they have not met in person since Trump’s presidential term ended in 2021.
Meanwhile, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson also entered politics after Zelenskyy on Wednesday toured a Pennsylvania munitions factory with Democratic state governor Josh Shapiro, who has been a key campaign surrogate Harris.
Pennsylvania is expected to be a key state in deciding US elections, and has a large Ukrainian and Eastern European population backing Washington’s support for Kiev.
Johnson said the visit was “designed to help Democrats and clearly represents election interference.” He called on Zelensky to fire his ambassador to the United States.
The House speaker was among several House Republicans who blocked further aid to Ukraine earlier this year, before relenting.