Mr. Zelensky went to Washington – and went home empty handed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a high-profile and high-stakes trip to DC this week to press his case for additional U.S. defense assistance. But his appeal ran headlong into the toxic partisan warfare engulfing American politics at the moment.
Meanwhile, Russian media cheered as Congressional Republicans continued to block $60 billion in supplemental defense assistance to Ukraine – and in his annual year-end press conference, an emboldened Vladimir Putin predicted victory.
So after Mr. Zelesky’s trip to Washington, just how bleak does the coming winter look for Ukraine as it fights for its survival? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Steven Pifer, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 1998-2000 and is currently embedded at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Enjoy…
SHOW NOTES
The audio clips opening the podcast and the second segment came from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech at the National Defense University in Washington, DC on December 11, 2023.
“I’m as confident today as I was on February 24th, when I told world leaders – Ukraine will fight, Ukraine will stand. I’m confident that freedom must always prevail when challenged.”
“Russia’s war on Ukraine isn’t just about some old-fashioned dictatorship trying to settle scores, real or imagined. It’s not just Moscow trying to split Europe again. It’s Putin attacking that big shift that happened back in 1989.”
You can access the full speech here.
Steven Pifer’s report for The Brookings Institution, “For a secure and stable Europe, put Ukraine on a definitive path to NATO,” can be accessed here. Steven Pifer’s other published work can be accessed here and here.