Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to meet with President Biden at the White House on Wednesday on his first foreign trip since Russia invaded Ukraine, CNN reported on Monday.
Sources told CNN that the plan hadn’t been finalized due to security concerns, and the White House declined to comment on Zelensky’s potential visit. On Tuesday, Zelensky visited the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian forces have been locked in brutal battles with Russia for months.
If he makes the trip to Washington, Zelensky might also address Congress. The Ukrainian leader addressed Congress virtually back in March and asked for the US to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would require the US to shoot down Russian warplanes and bomb missile systems inside Russia.
The report said the Zelensky-Biden meeting is supposed to coincide with the US announcing a new weapons package for Ukraine, which will include Patriot missile defense systems for the first time. Providing Patriots would mark another escalation of US military aid to Ukraine, and Russia has repeatedly warned against the move, saying that the systems would be legitimate targets.
Patriots are an advanced air defense system and are sought after by many US allies. It would take about six months to train Ukrainians to use the Patriot missiles, and the training is expected to take place in Germany.
Two war criminals meet.
Zelensky sold his nation, annihilating it, all for NATO membership and money after he was elected because he promised peace. He is now a multimillionaire, what a way to make money.
Biden and the whole Washington cabal are just evil people, at least as evil as Hitler.
That sounds a bit harsh Renate… Harsh but true.
And the REALITY of war is even much harsher, words alone can’t tell it.
Normally, civilian casualties are often higher than the losses of young soldiers, that does not appear to be the case here. Obama’s drones killed about ten collateral people for each single target, that was in the Assange reports. They often killed whole big wedding parties as I recall.
I’m shocked — shocked! — that an authoritarian politician who imposed conscription on all adult males, outlawed political opposition, and seized control of his country’s media will meet with Joe Biden, address Congress, and be lauded as a “defender of freedom.”
They will give him nobel peace prize as well. Get bottle of Jack with a Cuban and enjoy the show.
As it should be… It’s the American way.
Jack is good.
I am not shocked that one war criminal meets another one. Both are evil people. Zelensky promised peace and got elected. But immediately he served US interests and continued the destruction, the annihilation of Ukraine in return for NATO membership.
He won, he is well paid, he is now a multimillionaire while the country is in ruins and the people suffering and dying out there. All for his fat paycheck and mansions. Talking about evil, he makes Hitler look pale. Yes, Biden and Zelensky and the whole Kagan neocon baggage and all the rest of the neocon war criminals deserve each other.
Zelensky and spouse, the first couple of a destroyed Ukraine will enjoy the dinner with the US first couple which makes it all possible.
How could you be shocked after moderating this site? LOL
Will congress give him a standing “O” or is that reserved for our other parasite? And doesn’t this guy have a war to run? Christ, he does more photo ops than Trump did.
He is a civilian and a political leader as such he has to clinch political deals and do PR to get support and otherwise only interfere in war matters when there are political decisions to be made – which is not all that often.
Then he should take off the OD T-shirt he is always sporting and shave the beard. You know, stop pretending to be a soldier.
The fact that you so dislike it seems to prove exactly why he should not – appearing like he does is part of the PR – so part of a job well done – as it reminds the public watching that there is a war, being clean shaven and in a nicely fitted tux would do the opposite.
I get it. He should act like a civilian for PR purposes and he should act like a soldier for PR purposes. You must know how utterly gullible our population is.
Apparently you did not get it, he should act like a civilian because he is one, he should adopt the clothes he does to remind people there is a war in his country and he is willing to stay and fight it as political leader of the country – so no inherent contradictions.
I didn’t have contradictions in mind. It was everything being PR and the gullibility of the masses. PR shouldn’t work. At least by now.
OK I understand your point then, but why do you think PR should not work by now? I can’t think of one conflict which has been fought as much on PR as this one – I did not think much of Zelenskyy before 2022, and what little I did was mostly negative.
But having seen how he wields his PR campaign I have to say that I am surprised at the reach he has managed – it goes far beyond the normal government partners – the way he has shamed many large companies to ‘leave’ Russia is just one example – he was by all accounts a very mediocre to bad political leader before the SMO – after I cannot think of any leader I have seen that could wield soft power as well as he has with the possible exception of Che.
I said PR shouldn’t work, not that it doesn’t. And “by now”, I meant that after so many years of that PR being obvious bullsh*t , people should be able to see through it. They don’t.
Does he have authority to make political decisions? I doubt that is what he gets paid for, he is a comedian, a clown not a head of state with a brain and governing responsibilities, he functions on remote control.
Kind of like Biden.
It would certainly seem so – when the US just recently have had to issue statements that they had prevented the HIMARS from being able to target Russian territory that was pretty good evidence that they had to act upon Zelenskyy having taken the decision to make long range strikes in Russia (a political decision) – had the US taken this decision they would not have issued the statement so close to the strike.
With a better take on public sentiments and how to ‘act’ to get the pubic to support him – compared to him Putin is an amateur – the meeting he had with the women – his need to cancel his annual press conference.
If you had some evidence for what you proposed, you’d do better – yes he is a comedian, one with an approval rating below 30% in February 2022 – now he (unlike Putin) can go for public walks even in recently liberated cities like kherson – making it likely that his popularity ratings that appear to have shot through the roof actually have done so.
Really? We are actually having a Nazi has not only incorporated insignia bearing Nazi’s into the military, have Nazi body guards, banned all political opposition, banned Orthodox churches testify before joint sessions of Congress as some sort of freedom fighter? Do we ever learn anything?
NO.
We never have learned. Why look to us to start now? The USA is on a railroad track with no switching yard. We’re on a highway to hell and it’s going down (credit to ‘Aliens’ script writers!).
I have completely given up on the US political system. We have a royal executive, an irrelevant Senate, and an impotent House, who all serve the corporate elite, whose only priority is to dominate the world’s economies.
The key political element possessed by our polluted executive is the lack of any restraint via authorization of funding for wars of opportunity. Our kings can start wars whenever and wherever they please – and for as long as they please (see Yemen for a recent example).
I live in the country and have no desire to engage with the fools who continue to insist on our superior right to run the planet.
I hope he wears his green T-shirt. It’s very official looking.
Phony through and through, given his personal wealth. Couldn’t stand the guy from the very first day I saw him in action, but that’s just my gut instincts about people talking.
Zelensky visiting Biden. Putin visited Xi Ping. I have an eerie feeling that something very big is going to happen in the weeks to come.
Or just the opposite.
Putin visited Lukashenko, and that’s where the big questions arise. This morning, Reuters reports that the Belarus regime has restricted access to the area bordering Ukraine.
There seem to be three plausible possibilities as to what the visit and the subsequent actions mean:
1) It’s entirely a ruse. By making the Ukrainian regime think that a threat may be developing there, Putin can bluff them into pulling troops out of the eastern fight for e.g. Donetsk to defend against a renewed front that threatens Kyiv.
2) It’s partially a ruse. There will actually be an attack on that front but, like the first one, it will be a strategic feint for the purpose of reducing Ukrainian pressure on the Russian forces in other areas.
3) It’s the genuine article. Putin actually entertains the fantasy that he can come out of this with more than — at most — the LPR, DPR, and a land corridor connecting them to Crimea to show for his the Ukraine fiasco.
Since I don’t believe Putin is stupid or insane, I’d put my money on one of the first two.
And how does Zelensky expect to come out of this, what is in it for him? What is in it for the Ukrainian people?
Zelensky can retire to one of his mansions, he is now a multimillionaire, he was and still is well paid.
He and spouse better enjoy the dinners in Washington, after that he will end up in hell with Hitler and all the other scum down there.
Despicable people they are, every one of them.
There is nothing stupid or insane about ending the war and securing entire Ukraine. It is going to happen sooner or later and I can’t wait to see heads in Washington explode. I can almost hear the delightful whining of propaganda horns like Reuters and AP.
I doubt that Zelenskyy and Co. will “secure entire Ukraine,” even if Crimea is acknowledged to not be part of it. The Russian empire will almost certainly come out of this with the seceded republics permanently stripped from Ukraine.
Rus will come out of this whole again. Ukraine is part of it. There is no other choice for Kremlin. There wont be a major state hostile to Russian Federation and Belarus. It’s completely unacceptable. And the way things going, Finland might be the next target. It was part of Russia once, it may become part of Russia again if they don’t want to stay neutral. Everyone in the world should know better than to trust terrorists in Washington. They bring war, Russians end it.
I suspect that Russia will remain whole.
As for its declining empire, that’s headed in the other direction. Ukraine is unlikely to become one of its satrapies again in the foreseeable future.
Ukraine is Russia and Russia is Ukraine. We are one people. Whatever you or imperial parasites, or rats in washington or london think on this matter is competently irrelevant.
Maybe you should throw yourself on the floor and threaten to hold your breath until you turn blue if everyone doesn’t join you in your game of pretend on that. Surely that will work.
Why would I do that? Kremlin got tanks, jets, ships, spacecrafts and if it comes to that, nukes. That works much better at securing peace.
There should be a massive anti-war demonstration in Wash. when Z comes, but there won’t be.