Biden’s team advised him not to leave his country in case it was attacked. When the Ukrainian leader decided to travel to the Munich Security Conference last February, Mr. Putin in Geneva, the Ukrainians lashed out at visiting American officials for not imposing sanctions on Germany over its new Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Russia.īy winter, as Russian troops gathered on the Ukrainian border and American intelligence concluded that Mr. Biden did not even nominate an ambassador to Ukraine until a year later, two months after the Russian invasion. Putin in January 2021, just six days after taking office, while Mr. Zelensky felt burned, assuming the byzantine maneuvering was the norm for American politics and wary of where it left him when Mr. Zelensky was elected in 2019, President Donald J. Their relationship was burdened before they ever met.
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The tension is inherent to their different positions and responsibilities. I classify it as a complicated relationship, not in the bad sense. If there are misunderstandings or different points of view, emotions pop up. “When their interests align, it’s the best relationship ever. “Both are really determined and strong leaders,” said Igor Novikov, a former adviser to Mr.
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Zelensky, but the Ukrainian has learned how to slowly wear down resistance to eventually get much of what he wants. Biden’s reluctance to provide the most advanced weaponry vexes Mr. Putin into escalating the war beyond Ukraine’s borders or into a nuclear conflict. Zelensky’s goal of driving out Russian invaders, he worries about provoking President Vladimir V.
Roosevelt before Pearl Harbor, mustering the so-called Arsenal of Democracy to arm European allies without drawing the United States directly into a war. Biden finds himself assigned the role of Franklin D. Zelensky is a modern-day Winston Churchill, as admirers often say, then Mr. It is, after all, a relationship of necessity but not of equals, one of mutual interests but disparate priorities. “She’s doing well,” the president replied. “It’s amazing to see you,” he added, perhaps still shocked that the Ukrainian president has escaped Russian efforts to kill him. Biden made a dramatic unannounced visit to wartime Kyiv this week, the two had grown close enough to greet each other with the easy familiarity of old friends. Zelensky was more than a former comedian and tougher than anyone imagined.īy the time Mr. But the American president was happy to be proved wrong - and surprised to discover, like the rest of the world, that Mr. Zelensky might not survive the Russian onslaught, given the target the Kremlin had put on his back. Biden was hardly the only one to assume that Mr. It was chilling, several people remember him observing grimly, to think that he might be talking with a dead man. He did not know the man well - and might never get to.
WASHINGTON - After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, President Biden reflected privately on his long-distance conversations with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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