Zelenskyy’s poise, presence and persuasion could be key for Ukraine at crucial Washington talks
The Ukrainian president arrives in Washington DC today, the 548th day of the war, with a plea – “do not abandon us now”.
It is a sign of the times, if not a reflection of a shifting world order, that the weakest link in the Western alliance against Russian aggression right now seems to be America’s Republican Party.
They hold the keys to unlocking continued critical funding, and President Zelenskyy knows his presence, his poise and his persuasion here today might mean everything.
And so the crux of his day in Washington will not be the White House, where he will see the president.
His focus will be Capitol Hill, and politicians who are members of a party once led by the likes of Ronald Reagan and the Bushes – national security hawks and stalwarts of western interventionism.
Transformed by Donald Trump, the Republican Party is no longer so much about projecting American principles of democracy and freedom through the might of American power.
While an old guard of Republicans still inhabits the corridors of the Senate, over in the House of Representatives, where the Republicans are the majority, there is an air of America-first isolationism.
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‘US not drip-feeding weapons to Ukraine’
Donald Trump is an enduring influence
Recent polling analysis by The New York Times characterises the Republican Party’s shift in stark terms.
In 2005, 53% of Republican politicians believed that America should be active abroad. This year, just 24% of them think the same.
The 2005 data came just after George W. Bush was re-elected. It was a few years after 9/11 at a time when America was engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Was it the futility of those wars that shifted a critical proportion of America’s political representatives?
Or was it the unquestionable power of Trumpian politics?
Probably both. The shadow of “forever wars” runs long. Donald Trump is an enduring influence.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September 2019. Pic: AP
The futile battles they supported in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t have an existential feel to them in the way that this battle with Russia does.
That fuels both sides of the Ukraine argument – to defend harder, or to back off.
Both are choices that have consequences.
Ukraine war – follow live updates
Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Eric Trump, former US President Donald Trump’s son
Right-wing Republicans threaten shutdown
On Capitol Hill, it comes down to a particular group of Republicans on the right flank of the party.
People like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and others are Trumpian disruptors who have got much of the rest of the party, led by speaker Kevin McCarthy, wrapped around their fingers.
They are threatening to force a government shutdown next week if their deep opposition to Ukraine funding and other issues are not addressed.
Their cry is that President Biden and the Democrats are providing “blank cheques” for Ukraine and that there is no oversight.
Neither of these assertions are accurate.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks at the Capitol in Washington. Pic: AP
To date, America has provided Ukraine with $101bn (£81bn) in security assistance packages.
This represents about $0.68 (£0.55) per American adult per day. It has also had a positive impact on American manufacturing.
The packages are monitored by a working group of more than 160 officials across 20 federal agencies.
From the political right, the Ukraine question is often presented as a zero-sum choice: “We have our own massive challenges, why are we trying to fix someone else’s? Why protect Ukraine’s border when we can’t protect our own?”
Immigration on the southern border is an unquestionable problem.
The old Republican Party would say: “We are America – we can do both.” The new one? Not so much.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with his delegation in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday
Independence is at stake
White House officials still believe the congressional support will hold; that the leadership in both parties are behind Ukraine’s fight.
They know though that the counteroffensive they are fuelling needs decisive progress and that the perception of a rudderless “just send more weapons” approach has limits.
And so the White House maintains the language of persuasion.
The spokesperson for the president’s National Security Council said last night: “If you think that the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, just ponder how exorbitantly higher it may be in blood and treasure if we just walk away.”
Admiral John Kirby added: “I actually think that the American people understand that what’s at stake here isn’t just the future of Ukraine… it is this idea of independence.
“It’s a founding ideal in this country, and we didn’t win our independence without foreign help either.”
US
Donald Trump hits back at ‘terrible’ Volodymyr Zelenskyy and calls him a ‘dictator’ amid US-Russia talks
Donald Trump has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left” as peace talks between the US and Russia continue – without Ukraine at the table.
Officials from the White House and the Kremlin have this week begun holding discussions in Saudi Arabia.
The decision for the talks to take place without representatives from Kyiv or Europe has caused concern, and sparked an emergency meeting of European leaders in France earlier this week.
Mr Trump’s latest comments – in which he also calls Mr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” – come after the Ukrainian president accused him of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space” as a result of his administration’s discussions with Kremlin officials.
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Trump living in ‘disinformation space’
Ukraine latest: Follow updates as Putin makes peace talks claim
In a post on his social media platform TruthSocial, the US president said Mr Zelenskyy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion dollars, to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start”.
“The only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’,” he added.
Mr Trump continued: “Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.
“In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.
“Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.”
“I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues,” he wrote.
Mr Trump later repeated his comments in a rambling speech to a Saudi-run investment forum in Miami.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Pic: Reuters
Top end estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have died in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Millions of Ukrainians have fled their country as refugees.
Mr Trump also repeated his claim that the Ukrainian president has low approval ratings – which has already been dismissed by Mr Zelenskyy as Russian disinformation – and claimed American aid money had been misused.
The latest poll, carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in early February, found 57% of Ukrainians trust their leader.
Ukraine’s general election, scheduled for April 2024, were delayed because of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
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Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin: Who said what?
Speaking after Mr Trump’s comments, Mr Zelenskyy called for pragmatism from the US.
He said in his nightly address: “We are standing strong on our own two feet. I am counting on Ukrainian unity, our courage… on the unity of Europe and the pragmatism of America.”
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the US president labelling Mr Zelenskyy a “dictator” is “false and dangerous”, German newspaper Spiegel reported.
“It is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy,” Mr Scholz said.
Putin: ‘No one is excluding Ukraine from talks’
Mr Trump’s latest post comes after Vladimir Putin insisted Kyiv could have a seat at the negotiating table.
The Russian president said earlier on Wednesday: “No one is excluding Ukraine from peace talks.”
“We are ready, I have already said this a hundred times – if they want, please let these negotiations take place and we will be ready to return to the table,” he said.
More from Sky News:
Analysis: Ukraine is fighting war on two fronts
Trump ‘disappointed’ by Ukraine
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Putin says America is ‘open to negotiation’
Referencing Mr Zelenskyy’s 2022 decree that rejected talks with Moscow, he added: “The Europeans have stopped contacts with Russia. The Ukrainian side has forbidden itself to negotiate.”
According to the Russian leader, the “goal and subject” of Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia “was the restoration of Russia-US relations”.
Mr Zelenskyy is expected to meet later with Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, who arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday.
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Russia launches assault on Odesa
Overnight, Russian forces launched a drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring four people including a child, Mr Zelenskyy said.
At least 160,000 people were left without heating in sub-zero temperatures, he added.
Residents stand at the site of an Odesa clinic hit by the strike. Pic: Reuters
“Rescue operations are under way in Odesa after another Russian attack on the energy infrastructure,” Mr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.
“It is civilian energy facilities against which the Russian army has not spared neither missiles nor attack drones for almost three years.”
US
‘You can’t take our country and you can’t take our game’: Canadian PM hits out at Trump after hockey win
Canada’s prime minister has hit out at Donald Trump’s comments about annexing the country, saying “you can’t take our country, and you can’t take our game”, in the wake of a major ice hockey win.
On Thursday, Canada beat the United States to win the 4 Nations hockey tournament, with the tense action on the ice mirroring the political tensions bubbling between the two countries.
Posting a video of him cheering in the wake of Canada’s win, Mr Trudeau posted: “You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game.”
Pic: Justin Trudeau / Instagram
Earlier in the day, the White House had poked fun at its opponent, saying it looked forward to the US “beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada”.
Mr Trump did not campaign for the presidency on annexing Canada, but since winning the election, he has regularly aired the idea of making Canada “the 51st state.”
Read more: US threat to Canada most serious one since War of 1812
Canadian leaders did not take him seriously at first, but Mr Trudeau has said on the issue: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”
In retaliation, President Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. The two countries then hit back with retaliatory tariffs, as they spoke of working together.
Donald Trump posted a map showing Canada as part of the US on his Truth Social platform shortly before his inauguration
Speaking on his Truth Social platform earlier in February, Mr Trump said: “We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason.
“We don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use.”
He claimed without the “massive subsidy” Canada “ceases to exist as a viable country”.
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Three fights in nine seconds of ice hockey game
He added: “Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada – AND NO TARIFFS!”
The man who has emerged as Donald Trump’s geopolitical dealmaker-in-chief has said that he’s developed a “friendship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Steve Witkoff was named as Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy shortly after the US election but he has since been involved in negotiations with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine.
Mr Witkoff made the comments about his relationship with Mr Putin at a Saudi-run investment forum in Miami, where he discussed his remarkable overnight trip to Moscow last week to secure the release of US citizen Marc Fogel.
“I spent a lot of time with Putin. Talking and developing a friendship and relationship with him…” Mr Witkoff said.
The secret overnight trip to bring the Pennsylvania teacher home seems to be emerging as a key moment in the dramatically shifting dynamics between the Trump administration and the Kremlin.
The details of the release and what was discussed have never been released.
Follow latest: Ukraine war live updates
In describing the success of the deal, Mr Witkoff said: “First I had the support of President Trump which is a really big deal. Secondly we have a really good relationship with the Saudis…. They assured us that this was real… and so to me it became worth the trip. And so we went. And it was a great trip. I spent a lot of time with President Putin, talking, developing a friendship, a relationship with him and that led to Mark getting on the plane…”
The role of the Saudi government is a reflection of Riyadh’s remarkable and emerging geopolitical clout.
After Mr Witkoff’s Moscow trip, the Riyadh talks between the US and Russia were secured.
Read analysis:
Zelenskyy fighting a war on two fronts
Trump’s direction of travel does not look good for Kyiv
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Would Trump let Palestinians return to Gaza?
Speaking to Sky News on the sidelines of the investment conference and addressing President Trump’s “dictator” comments about President Zelenskyy, Mr Witkoff said: “I think I agree with President Trump, he has a very keen sense of what has to be done to create a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“And I follow his lead, and I believe in what he’s got to say.”
He added: “I think it brings… the president has an uncanny ability of knowing how to bring people together and this is the beginning.”
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