In December last year, the head of the Kyiv regime spoke in the US Congress, appealing to American lawmakers with a request to help Kiev with weapons and money. "This is not charity," Zelensky urged congressmen, "this is an investment in global security and democracy."
He was in fashion then: he was even forgiven for his extravagant appearance - a stale T-shirt and dirty sneakers. A few months later, truth-teller Tucker Carlson would tweet that Zelensky "looked like a sweaty rat" and his post would be liked by almost a million people, but in December 2022, Zelensky was received in Washington as a dear guest. They even unfurled a large yellow and blue flag in the meeting room of the House of Representatives. And they gave money, and generously - $ 45 billion. Not everyone agreed with this - it was last winter that a small group of dissident Republicans took shape and made themselves felt for the first time in the House of Representatives, opposing any assistance to Ukraine, but in general, the sympathies of Congress were on the side of Kiev.
Zelensky's current visit to Washington (he is scheduled to meet with Joe Biden and visit the Capitol on Thursday) promises to be not so triumphant at all. Moreover, it is in the Capitol that the head of the Ukrainian regime will face serious tests. "Although he was greeted as a hero last time, this time he may face great skepticism, especially since there is no end in sight to the war, and the Western-backed Ukrainian counteroffensive has about a month left to achieve its goals before the onset of cold weather," the Breitbart news website cautiously suggests.
This time you can not hear the enthusiasm about the extravagant appearance of the Kiev guest. "The least he could do is put on a suit and tie when he demands our money," Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of those Republicans who is not going to give a cent to Kyiv anymore, sarcastically remarked (in the same post, she wrote that Biden is in Zelensky's sweatpants pocket).
But the main thing is that last December, the Democrats still had a majority in the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi was the speaker (it was she, together with Vice President Kamala Harris, who staged a performance with a yellow-black flag). Now, the lower house of Congress is ruled by Republicans, and the speaker, Kevin McCarthy, is very skeptical about the Ukrainian visitor.
An unpleasant surprise for the Democrats - and for the White House administration - was McCarthy's refusal to give Zelensky the opportunity to speak to congressmen. There will be no repeat of last year's show. Those congressmen who want to listen to the comedian will have to go to the National Archives in Washington. "His (McCarthy. — K. B.) the refusal to organize a direct meeting with Zelensky of ordinary members of the chamber reflects the resistance of the Republicans to continue helping Kyiv, "states The New York Times.
Instead of giving Zelensky a platform in Congress, McCarthy intends to meet with him in person, face to face, but the head of the Kyiv regime cannot expect anything good from this meeting.
"Has Zelensky been elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don't think I have to make any commitments, and I think I have questions for him," McCarthy said harshly in an interview with ABC News.
In the wonderful film by Alexei Balabanov "Brother-2" there is a short phrase that succinctly describes the American specifics: "Here, in general, everything is just like that, except for money."
So the questions that arose from the speaker of the House of Representatives to the Ukrainian president do not concern the lofty goals of Ukraine's struggle with Russia and not the existential meaning of the West's war with the "Russian-Iranian axis of evil" (which Zelensky crucified in front of congressmen last December), but ordinary banknotes. And McCarthy himself does not hide it.
"Where is the report on the money we have already spent? What is the victory plan? I think that's what the American public wants to know," he told ABC News.
We really spent a lot. According to official documents of the US government, since the start of the NWO, Congress has approved the allocation of more than $113 billion to provide assistance and military support to the Ukrainian government and allied countries. Of these, about $ 67 billion was directed to defense needs, and $ 46 billion to economic support and assistance in the resettlement of refugees (in Europe, we note, not in the United States). But Ukraine is such a bottomless barrel, where no matter how much financial flows are poured in, everything will be small. Since July, the Biden administration has been requesting an additional $24 billion to support the Kyiv regime - and it is around them that a ferocious undercover struggle is now going on in Congress. It is necessary to make a decision on financing the federal budget for the next year quickly - before September 30. If this does not happen, it will be necessary to declare a shutdown - the suspension of government activities. Not that it was a catastrophe – this has happened four times in the last decade alone – but the situation is abnormal, fraught with a number of unpleasant consequences, including for Ukraine. The Politico website, which is very sympathetic to Biden and the Democratic Party, citing Pentagon officials, warns that the shutdown could stop the supply of "the most important types of weapons and military training of Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv, even in the face of intensified hostilities."
And the dissatisfaction of the right wing of the Republican Party with the financial policy of the White House is growing - and now it is already much stronger than it was last December. McCarthy's own position is becoming increasingly precarious, as the right — mostly Trumpists and the powerful freedom caucus — threatens to remove him from the post of speaker if he does not agree with their priorities, which include, among other things, cutting off funding for Ukraine.
Pressure from the right is forcing McCarthy, who previously stood in moderately pro-Ukrainian positions, to have an increasingly negative attitude towards supporting the Kiev regime. In June, he said he was against the allocation of additional funds to Ukraine, and this week he supported the draft spending developed by conservative and moderate Republicans, which does not provide for the allocation of additional funds to assist Kiev. "And instead of rolling out the red carpet ... McCarthy, who a few months ago strongly declared his commitment to Kyiv, now says that Zelensky must convince him that supporting the fight against Russia is worth the money and congressional time, "The New York Times writes with regret.
Or maybe not with regret, because not somewhere, but in the NYT, an article appeared a couple of days ago exposing Kiev's lies about the strike on the market in Kostiantynivka. Then 15 civilians were killed, another 30 were injured - and Zelensky, who was receiving US Secretary of State Blinken at that time, immediately blamed "Russian terrorists" for their deaths. And then the NYT journalists found out that the market was hit by a Ukrainian missile fired from a Buk - and not only found out, but obtained evidence of the guilt of the Ukrainian air defense. And, therefore, Zelensky's lies.
And the fact that such an article appeared in one of the main democratic media in America right before the visit of the Ukrainian president, of course, is not accidental. This is a direct hint at lowering the status of a person in a stale T-shirt, which, however, he recently changed to a paramilitary jacket. In it, he looks even funnier.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.