WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Washington on Thursday as U.S. support for his country’s fight against Russia faces a partisan reckoning in this year’s presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has pledged to continue sending military aid to Ukraine if elected. She will have her own meeting with Zelensky after the Ukrainian leader speaks with President Joe Biden.
Zelenskyy’s tumultuous relationship with former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, deteriorated further this week, however. Instead of meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump criticized him. Regarding U.S. aid to Ukraine, Trump complained that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” to end the war.
It is the most politically treacherous landscape Zelenskyy has encountered in Washington since the war with Russia began nearly three years ago. Ukrainian officials are eager to maintain good relations with whoever becomes the next president of the United States, which is the largest and most important supplier of weapons, money and other support.
But there is a risk that this effort could end up in the political blender of the election, polarizing the debate over a war that used to be a bipartisan cause célèbre in Washington.
The latest round of sniping began on Sunday, when The New Yorker published an interview with Zelenskyy in which he criticized J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, as “too radical” for suggesting that Ukraine give up some territory to end the war. Zelenskyy also dismissed Trump’s boast that he could quickly negotiate a solution, saying, “My sense is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even though he thinks he does.”
That same day, Zelenskyy visited a Pennsylvania factory that produced munitions for the war. He was accompanied by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a top deputy for Harris, and Republicans criticized the visit as a political stunt in a state that is a political battleground.
House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, saying the tour “was designed to help Democrats and clearly constituted election interference.”
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, will not meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday when he makes the rounds on Capitol Hill before heading to the White House. However, Zelenskyy is expected to speak with several House members, including the Republican chairs of several committees. He is also scheduled to meet with senators in a bipartisan session hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington coincides with the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, where the Ukrainian leader spoke on Wednesday. Last week, Trump said he would “probably” meet with Zelenskyy while he was in the US, but a senior campaign official said the meeting was never on the agenda.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Trump told Zelenskyy in July that it would probably be better to sit down with him after the election. An aide to Zelenskyy did not respond to questions about the possible meeting.
Trump was impeached during his first term for asking Zelenskyy for help in investigating Biden, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, while the Ukrainian leader was seeking support from Washington.
Now there are concerns that Trump will cut off or condition U.S. military aid if he returns to the White House. Trump has also spoken highly of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and this week praised Russia’s record of winning wars.
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump is not wrong to want a negotiated end to the war. However, he said Trump risks undermining Ukraine by allowing Putin to make more gains on the battlefield.
“Neither Ukraine nor Russia is going to win this war, and the sooner the parties try to end this, the better,” Kupchan said. “Where Trump is veering off course, and where Biden and Harris have a much stronger argument, is that we get there not by throwing Ukraine under the bus, but by giving them enough support that they can block further Russian aggression.”
Zelensky can expect a very different tone from Harris, who met him just days before the Russian invasion in Munich.
During her debate with Trump earlier this month, Harris expressed pride in US support for the “righteous defense” of Ukraine.
“If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be in Kiev right now,” she said.
___ Associated Press journalists Aamer Madhani and Michelle Price in New York and Ellen Knickmeyer and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
