Why is Volodymyr Zelensky trying to alienate Ukraine’s allies?
Tom Rogan
Video Embed
It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to lead a nation that is fighting for its very survival. That’s what Volodymyr Zelensky has done since February 2022.
And by most assessments, Zelensky has excelled. His leadership and motivation of his people have seen Ukraine deny and then push back Russian advances and annihilate large elements of the once-vaunted Russian ground forces. Ukraine is now taking the fight to Russia, greatly undermining Vladimir Putin‘s credibility at a time when he can least afford it. This is good.
HOW US AND UK AIRCRAFT ARE SPYING ON RUSSIA IN UKRAINE, BELARUS AND RUSSIA
Sadly, Zelensky is failing when it comes to an equally critical measure of leadership: Maintaining the strength of Ukraine’s key alliances. The Ukrainian president shows an escalating penchant for disregarding his most important allies in the most public forums. Indeed, Zelensky’s overt disregard for allies is becoming increasingly absurd.
On Sunday evening, referencing the decision by Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to refuse a European Union directive requiring them to allow imports of Ukrainian grain, Zelensky’s administration declared it would sue those nations at the World Trade Organization. This decision showed no recognition of upcoming elections in Poland and Slovakia and the central influence of agricultural interests in those elections. Then came Zelensky’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Zelensky declared that “it is alarming to see how some in Europe, some of our friends in Europe, play out solidarity in a political theater — making a thriller from the grain. They may seem to play their own role but in fact they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.”
Ummm, what?
It’s one thing to be angry, as Ukraine naturally is, that its bordering nations won’t allow Ukrainian grain into their domestic markets. Their decision adds pain to the crippling grain export blockade that Russia has imposed on Ukraine. It’s also understandable that Zelensky would criticize Viktor Orban’s Hungary, which is a puppet of Beijing and a partner of Moscow far more than it is an ally of the democratic West.
It’s an altogether different thing, however, to accuse Poland of being an agent of Russia. This is a particularly emotive concern for Poles, considering their suffering under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Zelensky’s assertion that Poland has “set the stage to a Moscow actor” isn’t exactly coded messaging. The Ukrainian president is accusing one of his very most important allies of being the agent of a shared enemy. Poland has committed $4.55 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war began. This isn’t loose change for Warsaw. Were the U.S. to have allocated an equal measure of its GDP to Ukraine’s support, for example, it would amount to nearly $180 billion. It is unsurprising, then, that Warsaw has been outraged by Zelensky’s remarks, first summoning the Ukrainian ambassador and then suspending arms transfers to Kyiv. Thus far, Zelensky isn’t blinking: His ego, it seems, comes before his war effort.
Unfortunately, Zelensky’s U.N. speech only cuts to his broader trend of arrogant disdain for allies. Allies, it should be noted, who are quite literally helping his nation survive.
Recent weeks have seen the United Kingdom and Poland quietly push for Zelensky to make greater shows of public appreciation over their massive arms and aid provisions. In response, Zelensky and his administration have admonished London and Warsaw for daring to expect gratitude. Considering the U.K.’s very direct support for Ukraine’s war effort, this is not a clever diplomatic strategy on Zelensky’s part. How Zelensky thinks this engenders these governments and their democratic populations to provide continued high-level support to Ukraine is unclear.
It gets worse, because Zelensky neither appears terribly interested in addressing legitimate Western concerns about where its aid is going. The president’s anti-corruption strategy, for example, seems focused far more on public relations gambits than on dismantling Ukraine’s culture of corruption. When major corruption scandals inevitably arise involving misappropriated Western aid, Zelensky’s lackadaisical anti-corruption strategy will make him unnecessarily vulnerable.
Contrast Zelensky’s allied diplomacy with that of another wartime leader who similarly faced the threat of his nation’s annihilation.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
It is not often remembered that Winston Churchill had some major disagreements with his primary ally, the United States. These included President Franklin Roosevelt’s requirement that the U.S., via General Dwight Eisenhower, and not Churchill, be the Allies’ supreme operational planner (Churchill wanted to destroy Nazi Germany by strategic bombing and land operations in southern Europe rather than the D-Day invasion of France, for example). FDR also rejected Churchill’s efforts to salvage the foundations of the British Empire. For a very proud and confident leader such as Churchill, these were hard pills to swallow. Yet Churchill had the sense to realize that keeping America on Britain’s side was the key to his victory. His private disagreements with FDR were rightly stated forthrightly. But in his public addresses, Churchill always knew his strongest weapons were graciousness and plays to kinship.
Ukraine can and must win its war against Russia. Ukraine’s cause is manifestly just and Putin’s interest is brutally imperialist. But Zelensky needs to recognize that his hectoring arrogance does nothing to keep crucial allies in the fight. To borrow from his U.N. speech, it only sets the stage for a Moscow actor.