©Valery Sharifulin/TASS
The Ukrainian president touched down in Washington on Wednesday for talks with President Joe Biden, and an address before Congress, amid jitters in the White House about Republican grumbling about the 'blank check' of US assistance to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to the US confirms Washington's plans to continue using Kiev as a proxy for an indirect war against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has indicated.
"It shows that the United States continues its line of a de facto and indirect fight against Russia to the last Ukrainian," Peskov said, speaking to journalists on Thursday.
Peskov expressed regret that the trip did not see any sincere calls for peace, nor make any mention of the suffering of civilians in the Donbass.
"...We can state with regret that neither President Biden nor President Zelensky uttered even a few words which could be read as a potential willingness to listen to Russia's concerns," the Kremlin spokesman said. "Not a single word was heard from Mr. Zelensky about the continued barbaric shelling of residential buildings in the settlements of the Donbass...No real calls for peace, not for the camera, but real ones, were made."
At his joint press conference with Biden on Wednesday, Zelensky said that "there can't be any just peace" in Ukraine "in the war that was imposed on us" by Russian "non-humans."
Zelensky's comments marked a soft retort of his US host, who told reporters just several minutes prior that Kiev was "open to a just peace" with Moscow if the conditions were right.
The Ukrainian president urged Washington to up its military and financial support to Kiev, including Patriot air defense systems.
Biden promised his guest that the US would stay "with Ukraine as long as there is a Ukraine."
Zelensky followed up on his talks with Biden with an address before a joint session of Congress, urging the American people to provide more weaponry and to slap more sanctions on Russia. "We have artillery, yes - thank you," he said. "Is it enough? Honestly, not really. To make sure the Russians completely pull out, more shells and cannons are needed," he urged.
The Ukrainian president's Washington visit comes amid growing fears in the White House and the president's party that a substantial number of Republicans may no longer be ready to write any more 'blank checks' to Ukraine when the new Congress convenes in January. US assistance to Kiev is already on track to topping $100 billion in 2022, on top of billions more delivered to the country since the 2014 US-backed coup. Many Washington insiders remain confident that the flow of cash and weapons to Ukraine will continue into the new year, with mostly pro-MAGA Republican skeptics of further assistance making up a minority in their own party, while neocon war hawks like Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham promise to vote with Democrats in new outlays.
The talks between Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky and US leader Joe Biden in Washington showed that Ukraine and the US seek not peace but further hostilities, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Thursday.
"The talks in Washington showed that neither Ukraine nor the United States seeks peace. They are simply determined to continue fighting," the diplomat said.
"Have you heard anything about negotiations, about any kind of communication with Russia? Of course not. Zelensky publicly spoke about our country in a boorish manner - he cannot in principle do otherwise; even his ‘masters’ do not dare to do that. They have made some attempts, remarks, but they have not sunk that low yet," Zakharova said.
"Apparently, Zelensky has nothing to say, being rude is the only thing he can do," the diplomat believes.
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