Zelensky Struggles to Play American Politics

Did Ukrainian President Zelensky invite Donald Trump to a summit in Ukraine? That was one of the hot rumors making the rounds yesterday, but while there may have been a kernel of truth underlying the origin of the story, the final result turned out to be a non-starter for the most part. One Trump campaign official, speaking on background, told the New York Post that no official invitation had been extended to Trump by Kyiv. Going even further, the official said that Trump would not accept such an invitation were it to be offered. The reason given for passing on such an opportunity was completely rational and speaks well to the former president’s current position in the general election. As far as Ukraine goes, Donald Trump appears to be attempting to stay in his lane and focus on the only goal that matters at the moment… beating Joe Biden in November.

A Trump campaign official denied Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has privately invited the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee to visit the war-torn country. 

“There’s been no outreach [from Zelensky],” the official told The Post, noting that the 77-year-old former president feels it “wouldn’t be appropriate for him to go to Ukraine right now since he’s not commander in chief.” 

Zelensky recently told Axel Springer media outlets that Trump has expressed interest in accepting an invite to visit Ukraine.

“We conveyed the messages and the context through the appropriate people,” Zelensky claimed.

The source for the story was Zelensky himself. In a separate interview, he claimed that Donald Trump had “expressed an interest” in accepting an invitation to go to Kyiv and meet with the Ukrainian president. But I did a bit of digging this morning and was unable to find any such statement from Trump during his recent appearances. He has brought up the subject of the war in Ukraine of course, claiming that he could end the war virtually “overnight” if he were back in office. But that’s not the same thing as asking for and accepting an official invitation to a summit.

Zelensky may not be making up false tales out of whole cloth. The wording he used when describing the situation seemed carefully crafted. He didn’t specifically state that Trump had received a formal invitation. He said that the message had been “conveyed” and it went through “the appropriate people.” That could just as easily mean that a question was sent to a staffer asking if Trump might be interested. 

Trump’s position is completely correct and this minor media kerfuffle is an example of how Zelensky is currently struggling to manage his relationship with the United States. It would indeed be inappropriate for Donald Trump to go bigfooting into the situation in Ukraine as a private citizen with no ability to alter or impact decisions over military allocations or funding. I was frankly surprised to see this response because it demonstrates more restraint than we sometimes see from the former president. But at the same time, Zelensky is no doubt keeping a close eye on American political polling. There is currently a very good chance that Trump can win in November and then Ukraine will have to deal with him rather than Joe Biden. Trump has already made it clear that he would prioritize a quick end to the war over endless military and financial aid to Zelensky. And the Ukrainian president may not care for Donald Trump’s approach to ending the fighting.

Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to labor to recruit more troops. The Parliament there just passed a new law that will give the government greater reach to identify and conscript troops. It would take effect one month after Zelensky signs it, which he is expected to do soon.

Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial law Thursday that will govern how the country recruits new soldiers to replenish depleted forces who are increasingly struggling to fend off Russian troops.

Lawmakers dragged their feet for months over the new law, and it is expected to be unpopular. It comes about a week after Ukraine lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25.

The law will become effective a month after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs it — and it was not clear when he would. It took him months to sign the law reducing conscription age.

The proposed law will effectively abolish a number of privacy assurances involving public records. Zelensky’s spokesperson said that this would allow them to “identify every draft-eligible man in the country.” It turns out that many younger men in Ukraine are opposed to enlisting in the military to go fight the Russians and have been able to avoid contact with government officials, keeping their names out of the potential draft pool. This change could result in tens or even hundreds of thousands of new possible recruits being identified. But it will also very likely undermine Zelensky’s popularity, which has already been lagging. 

Right now, the best thing that could probably happen to Ukraine would be for Trump to be elected and demonstrate that he can bring the war to an end. Ukraine will likely wind up losing some territory, but at least the killing could stop and they could begin rebuilding.