Zelensky Confirms He's En Route to Visit Biden in Washington, Address Congress
The trip was not confirmed by the White House over safety concerns, and the trip could still be called off
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Twitter that he was en route to visit President Joe Biden in Washington on Wednesday in what will likely be a dog-and-pony show to showcase the U.S.’s unyielding support for Kyiv’s losing war effort.
On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of Ukraine. In particular, POTUS and I will discuss cooperation between Ukraine and U.S. I will also have a speech at the Congress and a number of bilateral meetings,” he tweeted.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who already met with Zelensky in Ukraine to take a photo, gushed that there will be a “very special focus on democracy” on Wednesday evening.
Pelosi was the first U.S. House speaker in 25 years that would visit Taiwan. Her announcement prompted a dramatic escalation in the region that included a four-day Chinese military exercise around the island. Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked her visit at the time as pointless.
“Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China, and all visits to Taiwan by top officials are perceived as a provocation, he said. “Why was it necessary to drag this granny to Taiwan, to provoke China into some kind of retaliatory action, at a time when [Washington] cannot sort out relations with Russia due to what’s happening in Ukraine?”
Of course, Washington has been famous for its support for Ukraine, no matter how many Ukrainian troops must die and how much of the country is destroyed.
Washington warned its European counterparts that the Ukraine War will inflict more pain on the country and they will need to do more to help defeat the Russians.
Among the main concerns is the effort to prop up Kyiv’s economy in the face of new Russian bombings aimed at infrastructure. The Washington Post reported that the Ukrainian economy, which has already contracted by 33 percent in the past year, could fall another 9 percent in 2023.
The National Bank of Ukraine said about 11 percent of businesses closed as of September and more than half were operating below capacity, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s thought that only about 60 percent of Ukrainians remain in the jobs that they had at the beginning of the war. About 40 percent have either become refugees or have lost their jobs and are looking for work,” Adam Tooze, a professor at Columbia University said in Foreign Policy.
Putin said last week that he is prepared for a long grind in Ukraine and showed no indication that he would be willing to part with his newly annexed territory.
Putin said it is obvious that the West is perfectly content with using Ukrainian forces as cannon fodder and brushed off claims that his military was somehow faltering. He said the annexation of Zaporizhia, Donbas, and Kherson were major victories that the Western media and its politicians ignore.
It is worth noting that at the same time Putin was talking about a long conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes peace will be achieved in 2023.
“I believe the Ukrainians will be the most influential next year as well, but already in peacetime,” Zelensky told the annual Politico 28 ranking gala.
Zelensky, a former comedian who has achieved more fame after this war than his wildest dreams, has been named both Time magazine and The Financial Times’s Man of the Year. CNN reported recently that his office was dismayed that FIFA refused to show a video message from Zelensky before the finals in Qatar’s Lusail Stadium.
Kyiv attacks anyone who does not show sufficient support for Ukraine and said it will distribute the video independently if FIFA doesn’t air it and said their decision to block it would show “FIFA has lost its valuable understanding of soccer – as a game that unites peoples, rather than supporting existing divisions.”
Zelensky is expected to meet with Biden, who will pledge even more military assistance. The AP reported that Biden will “tout new $1.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine that will for the first time include a Patriot missile battery and precision guided bombs for their fighter jets.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, raised eyebrows earlier this month when she read a speech and stated that 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion. The commission then tried to scrub any mention of her comments from social media.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, said that it was “humiliating” that she deleted her tweet and said, “It is obvious that ‘Aunt Ursula’ was slapped upside the head by her bosses in Washington. Seemed to hurt, too. It looks extremely humiliating.”
Arrest him and hand him over to Putin.