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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Washington last week was a high-wire performance. With an intense, respectful earnestness, he deftly but genuinely thanked the American people and their political leaders for the $100 billion they have provided to keep Russian forces on the back-foot following their full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
But how do you say thank you when $100 billion is not enough?
Zelensky’s visit was impeccably timed before Republicans take control of the House next month. Despite the Democrat majority in the Senate, this could complicate the approval of more US military hardware and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president came as the quiet but determined hero, not of make-believe sit-coms, but of real-life fortitude, channeling every person’s deepest fear — the senseless deaths of their children and the unimaginable, overnight collapse of everyday life due to war.
Zelensky has lost none of the humility that he displayed during his 2019 visit to Washington, when, freshly elected and, arguably, out of his depth at home and abroad, he still disarmed the preening, self-satisfied then US president, Donald Trump, as the latter tried to extract what looked like capo-to-capo favors.
Yet, in just the last few short, brutal months, Zelensky has presided over the outmaneuvring of a far larger enemy in ways that have defied all expectations, perhaps even his own.
This experience has given him a new confidence and presence. In an April 2022 online interview with the then Chatham House director, Sir Robin Niblett, Zelensky listened intently to the questions put to him while asking for the institute’s advice, jotting down insights on a notepad and responding to off-camera events as the war unfolded in real time around him. His vulnerability was all too apparent.
In Washington last week, he once again smiled for the cameras. But his previous ill-fitting suit is now replaced with the informal military fatigues of a modern war leader; his hardened features belie the ordinary man he still thinks himself to be. He appears shocked and appalled by experiencing the worst of humanity while having to manage his country’s complex relationship with the world’s foremost superpower.
At the start of the Russian onslaught, and at huge personal risk to himself and his family, he appealed to US policymakers with the words, “I need ammo, not a ride.” He is still on-message. Last week’s Washington accolades and standing ovations may be tokens of the respect he deserves, but this diminutive man is now one of the most revered leaders on the world stage today, precisely because of his personal courage as well as the sacrifice of his people.
He remains astute enough not to define what victory looks like to him until he has tested the full limits of America’s military support for Ukraine.
Trisha De Borchgrave
But these accolades could not disguise the enormity of the task ahead of him. Because victory for Ukraine lies as much, if not more, in the corridors of Washington as it does on its own battlefields. Asking for ever-advanced military capabilities, Zelensky had to convince American legislators that their tax-payer billions will continue to enable Ukraine’s de-centralized fighting collective to push back Moscow’s centralized but un-unified and sluggish forces.
And yet America’s billions and Ukrainians’ courage could end up simply funding a stalemate that will prolong the agony of Ukrainians and potentially destabilize the West, running the risk of plunging Europe and the US into a wider conflict with Russia.
So far, Ukrainian successes such as the liberation of Kherson and Kharkiv have not deterred the Russians from continued territorial advances elsewhere in Ukraine and from plunging the country into freezing temperatures and darkness by shelling energy grids and residential areas.
Like an outer-planetary beamed experience, Zelensky traveled to the White House from Bakhmut where some of the fiercest fighting is currently taking place and where the Russians are digging trenches by the minute, as well as pillboxes and tank trap ditches straight out of the Second World War.
For Zelensky there is no such thing as a peace agreement without a Ukrainian victory. But what does a Ukrainian victory and a Russian defeat look like? Does it entail the re-taking or ceding of Ukrainian territory to the internationally recognized borders of January 2014 or January 2022? Are Ukraine’s allies willing to risk Russia’s humiliation and the potential implosion of the current regime, or push for Russia’s seething retreat to prepare for a third invasion in the next few years?
Might the Biden administration and its successors prefer to fund a potentially more stable stalemate that restrains Russia from escalating beyond Ukrainian borders, and puts Belarus off from entering a long and protracted proxy conflict?
President Zelensky returned with warm promises of expanded American aid to fight another day for the dignity, security, freedom and future of his people. But that seems sufficient only to fuel a continuing conundrum for now, sustaining Ukraine’s half of an irresolvable war, while the US decides whether it can live with a stalemate or wants to commit to helping Ukraine secure a victory.
What is clear is that Zelensky remains astute enough not to define what victory looks like to him until he has tested the full limits of America’s military support for Ukraine.
• Trisha De Borchgrave writes for print and online media and is based in the UK. Twitter: @TrishdeB