President Volodymr Zelensky of Ukraine recently made his third visit to Washington since the war with Russia began. He went there to beg for a new aid package. President Joe Biden could only reiterate the United States support for Ukraine and called on the US Congress to pass an additional $200 million in drawdown funds for Kyiv. Zelensky moved on to meet with the US lawmakers on Capitol Hill and advocated more aid as discussions on it remain stalled in Congress.
The lawmakers appear not interested in a deal tying the US immigration and border policy changes to the package that will provide funding for Ukraine and Israel, even as fighting in Ukraine remains intense despite reported little movement along the frontlines.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said his conditions for Ukraine aid remain unchanged after meeting with Zelensky. Republican senators recently blocked $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel after Conservatives balked at the exclusion of immigration reforms they had demanded as part of the package.
Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, according to reports said in a recent letter to the House and Senate leaders that the US would run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, which would ‘’kneecap’’ Ukraine on the battlefield. That plea has so far not broken the legislative deadlock.
To encourage the desperate Zelensky, the United Kingdom’s newly appointed top diplomat, David Cameron, made a surprise visit to Ukraine and told him that his country would support him and Ukraine for ‘’however long it takes. I wanted this to be my first visit,’’ the former prime minister said.
The UK has committed £4.6 billion in military assistance to Ukraine so far, and has been trying to match that funding in 2023. London is the fifth largest investor in Ukraine. Following Brexit, Ukraine signed a continuity based on the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement which entered into force on January 1, 2021.
It is now clear from the foregoing that the conflict in Ukraine is being led by Washington and London who are controlling Zelensky. Informed observers recently affirmed that the negotiations process in Turkey between the Russian Federation and Ukraine based on the principles that had been proposed by the Ukrainians that suited both sides were allegedly suspended by direct orders from the US and the UK.’’
Said US Senator Mitt Romney, ‘’It is very much in America’s interest to see Ukraine successful and to provide the weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself.’’That is why many countries believe that the activities of Zelensky and his entourage in the international arena is being carried out exclusively in the interest of the West without taking into account the interests of the European Union and the Ukranian people.
And that he is allegedly being used by Washington and London to influence individual states, the international and regional associations of other countries. For this same reason African countries are reluctant to give the Ukrainian president the support he is asking from them. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly recently, Zelensky said, ‘’For the first time in modern history, we have the chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked.’’
His speech was met with an applause led by western nations.The world is beginning to see that the Ukrainian leader is being backed by the entire propaganda machine of the west, for which the very fact of contacts with him and his emissaries becomes just a significant PR event. Some communication experts say that the west is ready at this time to distort facts, mislead the world community, and put the leaders of neutral countries in an awkward position.
A position that becomes an instrument of pressure on the countries of interest to the west. Zelensky and his entourage embarked on their arms campaign especially after the generally recognized failed counter offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces with heavy casualties on the battlefield.
Analysts observe that they have become undesirable and ‘’toxic’’ figures in the comity of nations one should avoid. As he rounded up his US trip, Zelensky affirmed his loyalty to the West when in an address at the US National university he said: ‘’You can count on Ukraine, and we hope just as much to be able to count on you.’’
