Time is ticking against Ukraine. On the battlefield there are no signs for optimism, neither this year nor in the long term. Volodymyr Zelensky once again lamented this spring that his allies only transferred enough weapons to his army to resist. It is not a new assessment, but the way of expressing it, unlike previous years, is that of someone who no longer expects a miracle to happen, for military aid to multiply. The seven months it took the US Congress to approve its latest aid package for Ukraine in April were a harsh lesson.
Fatigue in Ukrainian society is also inevitable, with majority opposition to the new wave of civilian recruitment. It is on the international stage where the Ukrainian president is focusing his efforts to achieve a large geopolitical majority that supports his interests in the face of an increasingly isolated Russia. In this context, the summit this weekend in Switzerland on the Ukrainian peace proposal is understood, an event that has also served to put the thermometer on kyiv’s nerves. And the temperature is high.
Relations between Ukrainian and American authorities have never been easy in the more than two years of the invasion. There have been clashes between its military leaders, but also between its presidents, especially over Ukraine’s tenacity to demand more help and quickly. In the run-up to the summit—coinciding with an article in the Financial Times which warned that the bilateral relationship is today at the worst moment of the war—Zelensky uttered some words that caused a stir: he warned Joe Biden that his absence at the Swiss conference would be applauded by Russia. Biden and Zelensky have met twice this June, but the US president prioritized attending a fundraising event in California for his election campaign rather than attending the peace summit.
It was not the first show of nervousness on Zelensky’s part. The Ukrainian head of state directly attacked China, accusing it of sabotaging the peace summit and helping Russia in its war. The harsh tone against the only power that can have a direct influence on the Russian position was surprising, but he insisted on it this Sunday: “When Brazil and China join the principles that have united us here today, those of the civilized countries, “We will be happy to hear your opinions, even if they do not coincide with those of most countries in the world.”
The nerves have also been evident in the media. The Ukrainian Government negotiated for weeks a final resolution for the Swiss summit that could gain the more support, the better. Two previous drafts were leaked to the newspaper Pravdaa medium critical of Zelensky, which opened an intense public debate and insisted from its editorial board on the possible concessions that the text included and that could benefit Russia.
Zelensky assured this Sunday that the next summit must be the one that ends the war, and added that this “will be a matter of months, not years.” There is another reason to hurry: it is not only Russian military dominance, but a possible new presidency of Donald Trump in the United States. Coinciding with the conference in Switzerland, the Republican candidate in the November elections said at a rally that he would not He will wait to be appointed president to turn off the tap for Ukraine. “I think Zelensky is the best commercial for a politician that has ever been seen. Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with 60,000 million dollars,” he stated with his characteristic populism: “And this is the best, he left here two days ago with 60,000 million, he comes home and says he needs another 60,000 millions more, it never ends. But I will fix it, even before I am president-elect.”
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