During their Dec. 21 visit at the White House, after being promised another $1.85 billion by President Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at times appeared to be speaking from a different script than Biden’s, despite the latter’s insistence that the U.S. would back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” amidst much backslapping and protestations of admiration.
During their joint press conference, while Biden also asserted that Zelenskyy was “open to a just peace,” Zelenskyy stated a few minutes later that, “there can’t be any just peace in the war that was imposed on us by these … non-humans”—an open admission of the Kiev Nazis’ conception of the Russians as untermenschen. He added that for him, “just peace [means] no compromises,” and “the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression.”
This contradiction must have raised a few eyebrows, because some hours later the website of the Ukrainian presidency ran a statement claiming that Zelenskyy had discussed his so-called 10-point peace plan with Biden, which was first presented at the G20 meeting in Bali. In his speech to Congress, Zelenskyy said he had discussed this 10-point plan with Biden and that the latter had “agreed with it,” although the White House had no public report on the contents of the plan. (https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/andrij-yermak-obgovoriv-z-generalami-zi-ssha-ta-norvegiyi-sh-79989 )
Some analysts pointed out that Zelenskyy would not have personally traveled to Washington, had there not been some signal of a shift in bilateral relations. The U.S. decision to send a Patriot missile system reportedly signalled that positive shift. But Zelenskyy was adamant that $1.85 billion and the Patriot missiles offered were not enough. “We would like to get more Patriot missiles,” he said, arguing that all these weapons and aid “were not charity” but in fact an “investment” in global security. But, as one CNN analyst noted, beneath all the mutual praise, there were tensions. Biden hasn’t always been comfortable with Zelenskyy’s constant demand for more and more weapons and other aid, particularly with a more vocal Republican House questioning these decisions and an American public increasingly opposed to financing Ukraine.
When asked by a reporter whether he had calculated whether sending a Patriot missile system to Ukraine could be considered “escalatory” by Putin, Biden insisted it was not, because “it’s a defensive system…it’s not escalatory, it’s defensive. One Ukrainian journalist then asked why the U.S. couldn’t just send the Patriots and everything else that Zelenskyy is asking for—”all capabilities, including long-range missiles, ATACMS, to liberate all territories as soon as possible?”
Earlier in the press conference Biden had boasted that Putin had failed in his efforts to break up NATO and the EU. NATO today is “more unified than ever,” he proclaimed, as are the European nations. But in response to that reporter’s question, he said there are two reasons why the U.S. can’t give Ukraine everything there is to give. One is that “there’s an entire Alliance that is critical to stay with Ukraine. And the idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than what is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up NATO and breaking up the European Union and the rest of the world.” (Are NATO and the EU so fragile?) Of course, he said, the U.S. will give Ukraine what it needs “to be able to defend itself, to be able to succeed and succeed on the battlefield.”
The other issue, he explained, concerns the European allies and heads of states, whom Biden has tried to convince that it is “overwhelmingly in their interest that they continue to support Ukraine.” They understand it fully,” he said. But, “they’re not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a Third World War. And I think it can all be avoided by making sure that Ukraine is able to succeed on the battlefield. So anyway, there’s more to say, but I probably already said too much.”
