Unlike what was done during his last visit to Washington last December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not speak Thursday during a joint session of Congress. The request, made by Ukrainian diplomacy, was rejected by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy.
According to the NBC network, the leader of the Republican troops justified his decision by speaking of a “lack of time” in a “busy legislative week”. He recalled that the treatment reserved this week for Mr. Zelensky, namely a private meeting with members of the House and then with senators, was the same as that offered to the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Italy recently.
A simple explanation, but one that fails to hide the reality. The visit with great fanfare of the Ukrainian president to the heart of the American legislative power, after his notable appearance on Tuesday at the United Nations platform in New York, reveals the crumbling of American political support for Ukraine, a crumbling which plays out mainly in the radical fringe of the Republican Party.
This opportunistic division, expressing the usual opposition of the American conservative right to any policy coming from the White House and the Democratic camp, cannot be without consequences for the continuation of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Behind closed doors and in front of senators, Volodymyr Zelensky summed up the issue by declaring that “if America weakens in its support, the rest of the world will too,” reported independent senator from Maine, Angus King, who was present at this meeting. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, for his part, assured to quote Zelensky verbatim, who told elected officials: “If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war. »
Dangerous game
Some Republicans are now playing a dangerous game, at the very moment when Ukrainian forces are continuing a difficult counter-offensive on the part of their territory occupied by the Russians, who on Sunday reportedly broke through the Ukrainian defense line for the first time. aggressor on the eastern front, in the Bakhmut region.
However, on Thursday morning, in anticipation of the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington, 29 Republican elected officials, including Ohio senator JD Vance and Arizona deputy Paul Gosar — two close friends of former President Donald Trump — , made public a letter in which they expressed their reluctance to continue aid to Ukraine. According to them, Congress is faced with “an unlimited commitment to support the war” “on the basis of a strategy that is not clear.” “The American people deserve to know what their money is being used for,” they write.
Since the start of the conflict, the United States has sent more than $112 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid. On Wednesday, the White House announced adding 325 million to support Ukraine’s military action against the violation of its territory by Russian forces, after having submitted to Congress in recent days a new request for a additional 24 billion in aid to Kiev.
“If we allow Ukraine to be dismembered, is the independence of nations still guaranteed? asked Joe Biden on Tuesday before the United Nations General Assembly. The answer is no. »
“Today, any war can become a world war,” Mr. Zelensky said from the same platform. We need global unity to ensure that such aggression does not happen again. »
Nevertheless, the opposition of several Republicans to maintaining aid to Ukraine is no longer afraid to express itself, in a congress where the divisions within the Republican Party are becoming more and more apparent. .
Thursday, after his meeting with the Ukrainian president, the highest Republican representative in the House of Representatives and chairman of its committee on foreign affairs, Texan elected official Michael McCaul, assured that Congress would provide more funds to Ukraine, despite reluctance within his party. “We must give her everything she needs,” he said, speaking of the weapons requests presented once again by Zelensky to American elected officials. kyiv says it needs F-16 fighter jets and long-range tactical missiles to consolidate its lead on the front.
Small politics, big issues
Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington unfortunately took place at a time when Congress is in tension with the White House over the issue of government funding, a situation that also exposes Republican divisions. The context is difficult for the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, placed under a double threat. First, that of having to assume a possible paralysis of the State – the terrible shutdown, a situation which occurred the last time in 2019. And then that of losing his seat, with fragile authority, under the effect of an influential opposition in his ranks. And this, even if all this small national policy can have enormous repercussions on the other side of the world.
“It’s a terrible message,” Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, a supporter of aid to Ukraine, said earlier this week, as quoted by Politico. Divisions over aid to kyiv “damage the United States’ vision of stability and its status as an ally” on the international stage.
Ignoring the United Nations International Day of Peace, Russia on Thursday dropped bursts of missiles and launched drone attacks on several towns in eastern and western Ukraine, at an intensity among the strongest observed since August 15, said the Ukrainian general staff. In kyiv and Kharkiv, 12 people were injured and 2 died.
“We are strong and united” in the face of Russian aggression, Zelensky told senators, according to comments reported on the X network (formerly Twitter) by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. “You must be too. »