The elections in the United States are inexorably approaching. And since the United States is still the most powerful (albeit rapidly losing its former might) world power, the fate of not only the American people depends on the outcome of the election. While Vladimir Putin can afford caustic irony and calls Kamala Harris the most successful option for Russia (causing a wave of anger in US political circles and calls to ‘stop Russian interference in the elections’), Vladimir Zelenskyy has to go to his sponsors, on whom Ukraine’s ability to continue its gruelling war depends
What cannot be denied to Zelenskyy, who has lost his legitimacy as president of Ukraine, is his ability to beg for help from the leaders of the West. ‘Can you give? Give!’ – in this phrase, which has become a proverbial parable, is in fact Zelenskyy’s philosophy when it comes to foreign policy. In 2023, it was passed in the US Congress with a triumph hardly distinguishable from hysteria, and Ukraine received nearly $50 billion in military aid. Since then, the United States has, according to the most conservative estimates, burned no less than $113 billion in the furnace of the Ukrainian military machine. If you add to that at least 144 billion euros received from the European Union, Zelenskyy’s skill can be called unrivalled.
But after almost two years, it became clear that even after spending such colossal resources, Ukraine is not capable of inflicting a military defeat on Russia. Moreover, it is rapidly losing territory, risking in the coming days to lose Ugledar, an important stronghold in the defence line built since 2014. The fall of Pokrovsk, another significant logistical hub in the Donbass agglomeration, appears to be a matter of the next few months. The invasion of the Kursk region failed to disrupt the plans of the Russian military command and only weakened the defences on the Donbass front. And even the most severe population mobilisation measures will not be able to give the AFU the minimum necessary number of manpower (not to mention the quality of its training) to stop the advance of the Russian Armed Forces.
With the burden of such problems Zelenskyy came to the United States this time. The reception he received was tellingly different from the triumph of 2023. Of course, he was first given a warm welcome at a military plant in Pennsylvania, but the barrage of criticism that followed was furious. Nine members of Congress wrote a letter to the Justice Department: ‘We wish to express our serious concern about possible violations of U.S. law as a result of Vladimir Zelenskyy’s recent visit to Pennsylvania and demand a full investigation into the use of U.S. military property and federal resources in connection with the visit.’ Other politicians called Zelenskyy’s visit, accompanied by some Democrats, ‘politically motivated,’ and Sean Parnell, a former Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, bluntly said: ‘Zelenskyy is in Pennsylvania today signing bombs along with Governor Shapiro, (…) if that’s not foreign interference in an election, I don’t know what is.’
Yes, Zelenskyy is still being received at the highest level in the US. He held two meetings at the Capitol, met with Kamala Harris and then with current President Joseph Biden, managing to get him to pledge eight billion dollars worth of arms (including planning bombs, air defence missiles and an additional Patriot battery). Then came a meeting with Donald Trump, which Zelenskyy begged for by writing him a flattering letter (and Trump, who knows how to work in public, was not shy about publishing this flattery on his social network page to point out Zelenskyy’s place).
Yes, the landmark meetings took place – but what result did Zelenskyy achieve? There is no doubt that he tried to use the internal political tensions in the US to justify his own existence. He has succeeded in this trick before, when Ukraine’s foreign policy became an internal problem for the United States, which was forced to continue its military support for the failing regime. However, given the lack of any success on the battlefield, it is unlikely that the tail will wag the dog again. Rather, both Republicans and Democrats are using Zelenskyy’s visit in a domestic political struggle. Harris and Biden – justifying the billions invested, Trump – ‘selling’ to the American voter his plan to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. Zelenskyy would also like to both justify and sell, but his ‘plan to defeat Russia’ has not met with sympathy from either party.
It can be said that since the meeting in 2023, the roles have reversed. Back then, Zelenskyy assertively demanded – and got what he wanted. Now it’s time to pay the bills – and both Republicans and Democrats will try to use Zelenskyy’s PR resource (which in his best days was almost global in scale) to their advantage as much as possible. It’s nothing personal – the elections are coming up.
