WASHINGTON, DC— Ukraine's President Volodymyr
Zelensky becomes only the second European leader to meet President Joe Biden at
the White House on Wednesday but his bid for more heavyweight US protection
against a powerful Russia is likely to be frustrated.
اضافة اعلان
Zelensky, who spent Tuesday at the Pentagon pressing for
military assistance in Ukraine's fight against Russia and Russian-backed
separatists, will be in rarefied company when he joins Biden in the Oval
Office.
The coronavirus pandemic and a hectic first seven months of
the administration mean Biden has had few foreign visitors. Even Zelensky's
meeting was delayed by two days due to the tense US retreat from Afghanistan.
The only other European leader so far was Germany's outgoing
chancellor, Angela Merkel.
"President Zelensky and Ukraine have gotten as much, if
not more, attention from this administration than any other European
country," a senior Biden administration official told reporters, asking
not to be identified.
This was a point stressed repeatedly by the official, who
enumerated the contacts between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US
officials with the Ukrainians and two phone calls placed between Biden and
Zelensky.
The White House visit is undoubtedly a triumph for Zelensky,
who has been trying to line one up since he took office in 2019. A former
comedian virtually unknown in the West, he found himself caught in a US
domestic political storm when then president Donald Trump asked him to launch a
spurious corruption probe into Biden's family ahead of the 2020 US presidential
election.
Accusations that Trump tried to block military aid to
Ukraine to pressure Zelensky sparked an impeachment of the Republican.
Hard reality
The hard reality facing Zelensky now, however, is that his
most ambitious goals for the US-Ukrainian relationship face slow going.
The US official said Biden would use the meeting to
"convey his ironclad commitment to Ukraine’s security, sovereignty, and
Euro-Atlantic aspirations."
But Biden has already made clear he sees no quick path for
Ukraine into the NATO military alliance, citing rampant corruption in the
country.
Zelensky's government argues it is fighting successfully
against corruption, but Washington is in any case nowhere near wanting to enter
direct confrontation with Russia, which has annexed Crimea and supported
proxies controlling a large chunk of eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky was hugely disappointed by Biden's decision to wave
US sanctions intended to block completion of Russian state energy behemoth
Gazprom's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.
The White House says it remains concerned by the
geostrategic implications of the pipeline, which will funnel energy directly
from Russia to Germany, bypassing the previous route through
Ukraine. However,
Biden argued that the project had already been nearly finished by the time he
got into office and could not be stopped.
The limitations on the relationship were neatly illustrated
in June, when Zelensky's bid to meet with Biden first before the US leader held
a June summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva was rejected.
Anti-tank missiles
Focusing on more concrete, near-term deliverables, Zelensky
met Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to request help in Ukraine's
unequal struggle with Russia.
Their talks came the day after the last US troops left
Afghanistan, ending America's longest-ever war after the nearly 20-year-old
US-backed Afghan government collapsed to the Taliban.
Russian officials have pointed to Afghanistan as a warning
for Ukraine, given its dependence on Western assistance. However, Biden insists
that he left Afghanistan precisely so that he could focus on more important
challenges like China and Russia.
Austin told Zelensky that the United States is committed to
demanding that Russia "stop perpetuating the conflict" in eastern
Ukraine and leave Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
"We will continue to stand with you in the face of this
Russian aggression," Austin said.
He highlighted a new $60 million package for Ukraine that
includes Javelin anti-armor systems. He said the United States has committed
$2.5 billion for Ukraine's defense since 2014, when Russia intervened as
Ukraine turned increasingly Westward.
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