Joe Biden and Volodimir Zelenski had their ninth bilateral meeting on Thursday, the second in a month, following their previous encounter at the G-7 summit in Italy, where the US president somewhat snubbed the Ukrainians by refusing to travel to the 'peace summit' organized in Switzerland the next day and instead attending a campaign fundraising event.
And, just three quarters of an hour before the press conference began, Biden messed up again. And big time. The US Head of State and Government introduced Zelenski with these words: "Now I will give the floor to the Ukrainian president, a man with as much courage as determination, Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin."
It couldn't have gone worse even if he tried. Biden did realize his mistake immediately, and less than a second later, he turned around and facing the microphone said: "President Putin! You have to defeat President Putin! President Zelenski! I am so focused on defeating Putin..." Zelenski took it with humor (what else could he do?) and, taking the floor, said, laughing: "I am better." Better than Putin, of course.
During his visit to Washington, Zelenski, well advised, has been very careful in maintaining very cordial relations not only with Biden but also with Congress, especially since the trumpist Mike Johnson took over as Speaker of the House, with whom he met on Wednesday. The Ukrainian president has taken the opportunity to heap praise on Donald Trump, given that the former president, whose sympathies for Putin's Russia are evident, is the favorite to win the November 5 elections.
Ukraine leaves Washington with the promise of joining NATO, a significant reinforcement of its anti-aircraft systems to be able to thwart Vladimir Putin's attempts to destroy the country's civilian infrastructure, and the announcement - more psychological than real - that in one or two months the first F-16 fighter jets will start arriving in Ukraine.
"These are strong news," said a satisfied Zelenski. By his side, Biden repeated the message he has been sending since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022: "We are with you, period." The meeting also included the foreign policy and security officials of both countries.
However, Zelenski also raised some demands to Washington. The Kiev government has not been able to get the Biden team to lift the ban on the use of most long-range weapons it has provided to Ukraine against targets in Russian territory, which means that Putin will continue launching missiles indefinitely and in increasing numbers. The Ukrainian president took advantage of his meeting to publicly call for the removal of these restrictions when he told Biden that "we need to take some quick steps to lift the limitations on our soldiers." The US president said nothing, but Ukrainians believe that time is running out, as if Trump wins, the aid to their country will not increase but rather decrease. And he has seen firsthand how political support for Ukraine continues to cool in the US. Even if Biden wins the election, which seems unlikely, getting new massive aid programs for Ukraine will be difficult. As Matthias Matthijs of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank states, "whether Trump or Biden wins, I don't see more aid for Ukraine once the current package runs out."
During his visit to Washington, Zelenski has tried to build bridges with Donald Trump, which was very evident when he stated on Tuesday that "Putin hates both Biden and Trump," and that, although the two American politicians are very different, "both love democracy." It is quite an incredible statement regarding Trump, who has always advocated for the principle of absolute sovereignty and has even expressed admiration for various dictators (including Putin), but the current state of US politics does not allow anyone to ignore Donald Trump.