Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Wednesday visit to the White House will symbolically bolster the U.S.'s role as a democratic arsenal in Ukraine's bitter fight.
It will be an astonishing public condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The visit, Zelenskyy's first to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February, also underscores President Joe Biden's historical role in reviving the Western alliance that contained the Soviet Union and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers, reports CNN.
Zelenskyy's arrival will be reminiscent of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's arrival in Washington 81 years ago on Thursday, days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The Christmas visit cemented the coalition that would win World War II and build a postwar democratic world.
In a video address to the British parliament earlier this year, Zelenskyy compared his country's resistance to Russia to Britain's only resistance to the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II. His arrival in the US capital will be compared to earlier austerity meetings between Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
His visit was carried out under special security measures. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not even confirm early reports that she would welcome Zelenskyy to the U.S. Capitol surprisingly, saying on Tuesday evening, “We don’t know yet. We just don’t know.”
Most importantly, the White House reception for Zelenskyy made it clear and unequivocal that the United States and the West stand behind Ukraine in its fight against Putin, who says the country has no right to exist.
Zelenskyy left for the United States on Tuesday night, the sources said. The war embodies what Biden has called a global struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, which he has placed at the heart of foreign policy.
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