For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his meetings this Thursday at the White House could be the last opportunity to try to convince a friendly US Administration to authorize his war objectives, his “victory plan”. Both governments are trying, against the clock, to reinforce kyiv’s military capacity before the end of Joe Biden’s term in January, who has announced a new battery of aid measures so that Ukraine “can win this war.” Meanwhile, the Ukrainian cause, which at the beginning of the Russian invasion enjoyed resounding support among Democrats and Republicans, is becoming entangled in the US presidential campaign and becoming a target of criticism from candidate Donald Trump.
But, although the announcement of a new military aid package is carried out, very substantial and that includes weapons that it did not have until now, Zelensky does not achieve his great objective. Before the meeting at the White House, presidential spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out that Biden would authorize Ukraine to use long-range missiles to attack targets further inside Russia. Washington fears that such a step would not have major consequences on the outcome of the war and, instead, could trigger a dangerous reaction from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We are on the Ukrainian side, now and in the future. “Let me be clear: Russia will not prevail in this war,” Biden greeted at the beginning of his meeting with the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office this Thursday. The White House had rolled out the red carpet for Zelensky, who also had a subsequent meeting planned with the vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and a meeting between both of them with the press. With both of them he planned to present his four-point “plan for victory,” which, although it has not been publicly announced, involves the use of long-distance missiles against targets beyond what his allies authorize him to do. Ukrainian media assumed that the plan also proposes Ukraine joining NATO next year.
Biden announced, hours before the conversation between the two heads of state, a series of support measures for Ukraine, including the delivery of $8 billion (€7.15 billion) in additional military assistance. The package will include ammunition, air defense systems and, for the first time, JSW gliding bombs: medium-range missiles (130 kilometers) that can be launched from fighter aircraft and hit their targets with great precision. This weapon would allow Russian forces to be hit from greater and therefore safer distances.
Most of the new aid, $5.5 billion (€4.9 billion), will be allocated before the US fiscal year expires on Monday. Another 2.4 billion (2,150 euros) will be granted within the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the US government to directly purchase weapons for Ukraine from companies, instead of taking them from its own arsenals. This second amount will be dedicated not only to strengthening Ukrainian air defenses, but also to strengthening its military industrial base.
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The measures that the US president has announced also include the supply of a Patriot air defense battery, and more missiles for this system. Likewise, it is planned to extend the training program for Ukrainian pilots so that they can fly F-16 aircraft. Next year 18 pilots will be trained.
Biden plans to travel to Germany next month, on a visit for which he will convene a meeting of the group of countries that provide assistance to Ukraine, to coordinate the efforts of the nearly fifty member nations.
In messages on the X social network, Zelensky was careful to thank not only Biden, but also the US Congress for the new aid package. And he promised to use weapons “in the most efficient and transparent way.”
It was a very calibrated attempt by the Ukrainian president to calm the waters with the Republican Party and prevent his cause from becoming entangled in the rough US electoral campaign, 40 days before the polls in his host country. In recent times, his government has been increasingly criticized by the opposition party and especially by its presidential candidate, Donald Trump. A meeting between the former US president and the Ukrainian head of state was not planned.
And kyiv cannot afford to be at odds with the potential US president for the next four years, nor with the lawmakers who may hold the key to US aid funds. Without Washington’s economic and military backing, the main provider of assistance to the invaded country, a Ukraine bleeding after almost three years of war could not continue to resist the Russian attack for long.
Trump criticizes military aid to Ukraine and assures that if he returned to the presidency he would end the war “in a single day,” predictably canceling assistance to the invaded country and forcing Zelensky to capitulate and accept Moscow’s terms. At a rally in North Carolina this Wednesday, the former president once again attacked Zelensky, as he has been doing at almost every electoral event in recent weeks. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to reach an agreement” to end the war, the candidate declared.
But the lack of harmony between the Ukrainian president and the American Republicans is not limited only – although it would be enough – to Trump’s criticism.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has expressed his discomfort over a visit by Zelensky, during his US tour to participate in the UN General Assembly, to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In the eyes of the Republican, that visit amounted to a campaign event in favor of the Democrats: the Ukrainian leader was accompanied by two legislators from that party, but Republican politicians were not invited to attend an event in one of the key states. in the elections and where the battle between Trump and Harris is most intense. The senior official has demanded the dismissal of the Ukrainian ambassador in Washington, Olga Makarova.
Before visiting the White House, Zelensky met with members of parliament from both parties on Capitol Hill, including Democratic leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, respectively. The leader of the Republican minority in the Upper House, Mitch McConnell, also participated in the meetings. But Johnson, who had met with the Ukrainian president on other previous occasions, avoided the meeting, with the handy argument of agenda conflicts.
Republicans are also upset with the Ukrainian president for an interview published last Sunday in The New Yorkerin which Zelensky criticized JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, as “very radical.” The vice presidential hopeful has proposed that Ukraine agree to the loss of part of its territory to reach a peace agreement. In the same interview, the Ukrainian leader dismissed Trump’s one-day peace promises. “I don’t think he really knows how to stop the war, even though he may think he does,” he opined.
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