Zelenskyy to Visit WH Amid Divide      09/26 06:19

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting 
Washington on Thursday as U.S. support for his country's fight against Russia 
faces a partisan reckoning in this year's presidential election.

   Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has 
pledged to continue sending military assistance to Ukraine if she's elected, 
and she'll have her own meeting with Zelenskyy after the Ukrainian leader sits 
down with President Joe Biden.

   However, Zelenskyy's tumultuous relationship with former President Donald 
Trump, the Republican nominee, continued to deteriorate this week. Instead of 
meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump has criticized him. As for U.S. support for 
Ukraine, Trump complained that "we continue to give billions of dollars to a 
man who refuses to make a deal" to end the war.

   It's the most politically treacherous landscape that Zelenskyy has 
encountered in Washington since the war with Russia began nearly three years 
ago. Ukrainian officials are anxious to maintain good relations with whoever 
becomes the next president of the United States, which is its biggest and most 
important provider of arms, money and other support.

   But the effort risks slipping into the political blender of the election, 
polarizing the discussion around a war that used to be a bipartisan cause 
clbre in Washington.

   The latest round of sniping started on Sunday, when The New Yorker published 
an interview with Zelenskyy in which he criticized JD Vance, Trump's running 
mate, as "too radical" for suggesting that Ukraine needs to give up some 
territory to end the war. Zelenskyy also dismissed Trump's boasts that he could 
quickly negotiate a solution, saying "my feeling is that Trump doesn't really 
know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how."

   On the same day, Zelenskyy toured a Pennsylvania factory producing munitions 
for the war. He was joined by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a top surrogate for 
Harris, and Republicans criticized the visit as a political stunt in a 
political battleground state.

   House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian 
ambassador to the U.S., alleging that the tour was "designed to help Democrats 
and is clearly election interference."

   Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, won't meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday when 
he makes the rounds on Capitol Hill before heading to the White House. However, 
Zelenskyy is expected to talk with some House members, including the Republican 
chairs of several committees. He's also scheduled to meet with senators in a 
bipartisan session hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

   Zelenskyy's trip to Washington coincides with the annual meeting of the U.N. 
General Assembly in New York, where the Ukrainian leader spoke on Wednesday. 
Last week, Trump said he would "probably" meet with Zelenskyy while he was in 
the U.S., but a senior campaign official said there was never a meeting on the 
books.

   The official, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations, said 
Trump had told Zelenskyy back in July that it would probably be better not to 
sit down together until after the election. A Zelenskyy aide did not respond to 
questions about the potential meeting.

   Trump was impeached during his first term over asking Zelenskyy for help 
investigating Biden, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential 
nomination, at a time when the Ukrainian leader was seeking support from 
Washington.

   Now there are fears that Trump would cut off or add strings to U.S. military 
assistance if he returned to the White House. Trump has also spoken admiringly 
about Russian President Vladimir Putin, and this week he praised Russia's 
record of winning wars.

   Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said 
Trump is not wrong to want a negotiated end to the war. However, he said, Trump 
risks undermining Ukraine by enabling Putin to make more gains on the 
battlefield.

   "Neither Ukraine nor Russia is going to win this war, and the sooner that 
the parties try to end this, the better," Kupchan said. "Where Trump goes off 
course, and where Biden and Harris have a much stronger argument, is that we 
get to that point not by throwing Ukraine under the bus but by giving them 
sufficient support so they can block further Russian aggression."

   Zelenskyy can expect a far different tone from Harris, who met with him in 
Munich just days before Russia invaded.

   During her debate with Trump earlier this month, Harris expressed pride in 
U.S. support for Ukraine's "righteous defense."

   "If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now," 
she said.