The resignation of Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, underscores the reality that in wartime, polite diplomacy often has to yield to the more combative approach favored by President Zelensky—a dynamic that both his supporters and critics may not entirely appreciate.
Like his father, Kuleba is a career diplomat who remains committed to diplomatic protocol, even as his country faces an existential crisis, intensified by the dithering of its so-called Western allies.
Kuleba's soft-spoken approach has frequently frustrated Zelensky (Kuleba even admitted it), who has come to realize that without significant political pressure, the West—especially the Biden-Harris administration—will continue to delay and withhold crucial aid to Ukraine.
It’s no secret that relations between Kyiv and the Biden-Harris administration are at an all-time low, with Ukrainians feeling betrayed by an administration more concerned with protecting Russian airbases than with protecting Ukrainian hospitals or stopping a global threat.
As the extent of the Biden-Harris administration's betrayal becomes clearer, and Ukrainian diplomacy continues to fall short in swaying the administration's Russia-appeasing foreign policy, Zelensky has grown increasingly blunt in his criticism.
Zelensky's blunt approach stems from the extreme urgency of confronting Russia's ongoing destruction of Ukraine and his growing impatience with the failed Western policies that enable it.
Zelensky's increasingly hardball style is also shaped by his background—not as a career politician or diplomat, but as an entrepreneur who successfully navigated the cutthroat world of Russian and Ukrainian showbiz.
Despite lucrative offers to work as an actor in Russian showbiz, Zelensky chose the riskier path of launching his own production company in Ukraine. His personality doesn’t lend itself to playing second fiddle to producers or to backroom dealmaking "superpowers."
At this moment, Zelensky has one overriding mission: as the commander of the "Western front", he is focused on applying maximum political pressure on Western leaders to secure the support Ukraine needs to win, recognizing that diplomatic efforts to achieve that have failed.
Zelensky risks further straining already tense relations with the Biden-Harris administration, but he has no choice. Their failed policies have allowed Russia to continue seizing Ukrainian land, destroying cities, and killing civilians with impunity for years.
The policy of the US is to force Ukraine to negotiate with Russia if/when the Kremlin decides it needs a temporary break. Ukrainian victory is not on the US agenda and Zelensky's main role is to resist Washington's inevitable arm-twisting.
Zelensky may fail as a peacetime leader and he cannot plan and implement Ukraine's military operations, but he is using whatever political capital he earned as the wartime leader of a country that is fighting for survival to apply political pressure on the West.
Unfortunately for Ukrainians, the Biden-Harris administration provides limited military aid not out of a desire to help Ukraine win—it's actively taking steps to prevent that—but because of bipartisan pressure to offer some level of support.
Zelensky is amplifying political pressure by exposing the West's betrayal of Ukraine. In a world where genocidal fascism faced true resistance, not cowering appeasement, this wouldn't be necessary. Those fighting for survival wouldn't be betrayed by self-proclaimed friends.
Source
@ukrainejournal
