Zelenskyy’s Biggest Problem

The Ukrainian president is getting a taste of how the discourse in America is changing. Aid for Ukraine has a high price that many voters are no longer willing to pay.

After an intensive week of diplomacy, the Ukrainian president can take stock of a mix of experiences. He delivered haunting speeches to the U.N. General Assembly, to which he personally traveled this year. And apparently Ukraine will now be receiving the long-range army tactical missile systems that it has been seeking for some time. That should also revive the German debate over whether to deliver Taurus guided cruise missiles.

But in Washington, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also had to take in the harsh reality of American domestic politics. The next large aid package is stuck in Congress, and Joe Biden had to pacify his visitor with a smaller package from the existing budget.

Not the US President

Ukraine’s biggest problem right now is the far-right Republican blockade in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not technically one of them; he is being pressured by them. But in response to the Ukrainian president’s request for more aid, McCarthy noted that Zelenskyy has not been elected to U.S. Congress and is not the U.S. president.

Those remarks testify to how the discourse in the U.S. is changing. Solidarity with Ukraine has a high price, one that many voters in Western societies plagued by a variety of crises are no longer willing to pay. Polling results from the Alternative for Germany Party show that this increasingly is the case in Germany, too.