IMAGE BY OVOODOCORVO
Ukraine
targets bipartisan support to avoid being dragged into US election
Kyiv
indicates it will keep reaching out to Republicans and Democrats, as Zelenskiy
pays tribute to Biden
Luke Harding
in Kyiv
Mon 22 Jul
2024 15.20 BST
Ukraine will
continue to reach out to Republicans and Democrats and avoid being sucked into
US internal politics and a bruising probable contest between Donald Trump and
Kamala Harris, officials in Kyiv have indicated.
Its
president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, paid a warm tribute to the departing Joe Biden
on Sunday, thanking him for his “unwavering support”. He praised the US
president’s “bold steps” taken in response to “challenging times” and Russia’s
2022 invasion.
“He
supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us
in preventing Putin from occupying our country, and has continued to support us
throughout this terrible war,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media.
He said he
“sincerely hoped America’s continued strong leadership will prevent Russian
evil from succeeding or making its aggression pay off”.
Zelenskiy’s
administration has taken pains to pursue an even-handed approach to
unpredictable and fast-moving events in Washington. Its top priority is to
avoid being dragged into a US domestic political row, which could ultimately
weaken its fight against Moscow.
“Our
official position is clear. We are looking for bipartisan support,” one source
said on Monday, declining to answer what Harris – as presidential candidate or
potential future president – could mean for Ukraine.
The result
of November’s US election would not change Ukraine’s international priorities,
they added. The main one is an end to the war – not with freezing of current
battlefield lines but with a “just” settlement. This could only happen with
strong US leadership and backing, they said.
Additionally,
Kyiv wants favourable decisions that would allow it to degrade Russian
capabilities. The Biden administration has refused to allow long-range US
weapons to strike targets inside Russia such as military airfields. These are
being used to launch cruise missile strikes at Ukrainian cities; a children’s
hospital was hit this month in Kyiv.
Zelenskiy
has repeatedly called for these US red lines to be lifted, most recently in
London where he met Keir Starmer and addressed the cabinet. It is unclear if a
future President Harris would be more sympathetic to Ukraine’s argument. Its
military is already conducting regular strikes within Russia using long-range
kamikaze drones.
In April the
Washington Post said Harris raised these attacks during a private meeting with
Zelenskiy at the Munich Security Conference. She reportedly urged him to stop
blowing up Russian oil refineries, arguing that this tactic drove up global oil
prices and invited Kremlin escalation. The request “irritated” Zelenskiy and
his top aides, the Post suggested.
Harris has
met Zelenskiy on five other occasions. Their last encounter took place in June
at a peace summit organised by Ukraine in Switzerland, where she deputised for
Biden. Their talks have been friendly and, it is understood, relatively brief.
They also met in Munich in February 2022, a momentous period just before
Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s international borders.
As
vice-president, Harris has been forthright in her support for Kyiv. During the
2020 election campaign she condemned “Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea”,
calling it a “flagrant violation” of post-1945 international norms. She opposed
the six-month delay by congressional Republicans to a $61bn Ukraine security
package. And she described Kremlin attacks on Ukrainian civilians as “crimes
against humanity”.
Despite
frustrations over targeting, and the slow pace of arms deliveries, Kyiv’s
relations with the Biden White House have been warm. At the same time Ukraine’s
leadership has made pragmatic overtures to the Republicans. Speaking in April,
the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told how Ukrainian deputies had wooed Mike
Johnson, the Republican House speaker, by inviting him to a prayer breakfast.
“I don’t
know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or how political elites in the US will
behave,” Kuleba said. “What we learned from the first tenure of Donald Trump as
president is there is always a way out of any crisis. We’ve been so many things
since 2014 [when the war with Russia began] that, without exaggeration, we are
ready for anything.”
Trump has
famously boasted he will settle the Russo-Ukrainian war in a day. It is widely
assumed that if he wins this autumn’s US presidential election Trump will cut
off aid – military and economic – to Kyiv. Ukrainian officials think this is a
misreading of the situation. They say Trump is unpredictable and add that
nobody quite knows what his Ukraine policy will be, if he wins.
In 2019 the
then President Trump rang Zelenskiy and urged him to dig up dirt on Biden’s son
Hunter. The phone call lead to Trump’s impeachment. Last week, on Friday, the
two men spoke again after Trump formally accepted the Republican party’s
nomination for president. Writing on Truth Social, Trump talked of Zelenskiy in
glowing terms and said they had “a very good phone call”.
It lasted
about 20 minutes, it is understood. Zelenskiy began by asking Trump about the
“shocking” assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania the previous
weekend. “I wished him [Trump] strength and absolute safety in the future,”
Zelenskiy posted afterwards on X. He confirmed they had agreed to meet in
person to discuss a “fair and truly lasting” peace.
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