Washington resists Zelenskyy’s charm offensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his vision for the endgame of the war with Russia to the United Nations General Assembly last week. He called for the return of Ukraine’s captured troops and hostages, the repatriation of its territory, accountability for alleged Russian war crimes, and more.

But lawmakers in Washington say they need more specifics before agreeing to meet Zelenskyy’s requests—even after they had a focused meeting with him in Washington before he headed back to Ukraine. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-N.Y., said he is waiting on specifics on how Ukraine will get Russia to the negotiating table.

“I would not say detailed,” Hoyer said when asked about the nature of the conversation at Zelenskyy’s meeting with lawmakers on Thursday. “There were a lot of people in the room and a lot of questions, and we went relatively quick. [Zelenskyy] had one hour and then he had to leave, so I wouldn’t say ‘in detail.’”

The Ukrainian president came to the United States to build support for striking deeper into Russian territory, which he says is crucial to ending the war. After speaking at the United Nations and attending meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House, Zelenskyy met on Friday morning with former President Donald Trump. As he made the rounds, however, his already tenuous relationship with House Republicans—and House Speaker Mike Johnson— took a turn for the worse.

The most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives have soured on support for Ukraine in the 2½ years since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. As of May of this year, Congress had appropriated $52 billion in security assistance to Kyiv, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Johnson has made it clear the House won’t add to that sum until he has a clear understanding of how Zelenskyy hopes to end the war.

Further complicating Zelenskyy’s campaign, conservative Republicans have raised protests over a meeting between Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova and several Democrats last week in Pennsylvania. The meeting took place at an Army ammunition plant in President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., and included conversations with Pennsylvania Democrats Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey, and Rep. Matt Cartwright.

Johnson described the meeting as a brazen display of partisanship from the Ukrainian government just two months removed from the U.S. presidential election.

“The [visit] was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris and failed to include a single Republican because—on purpose—no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson said.

Markarova has traveled the United States meeting state leaders on both sides of the aisle as a part of the People2People campaign, a program that links individual states with certain regions of Ukraine for local cooperation and support. The region of Kyiv, for instance, partners with Washington state and has since March 2024, according to the Ukrainian Embassy Facebook page. The Zhytomyr region partners with Indiana, the Chernihiv region with Minnesota, and so on. Last week, Pennsylvania partnered with the Zaporizhzhia region.

Johnson, however, believes the optics are damaging enough. He called on Zelenskyy to fire Markarova in a letter published last Wednesday.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. who also sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, is the co-chairman of the Ukraine Caucus in the House and has worked closely with the Ukrainian ambassador several times.

“She and I, our conversations have been very favorable about President Trump, and she fully understands that President Trump put Javelin Missiles in Ukraine. It was President Trump that put American troops permanently in Poland. They both understand peace through strength,” Wilson said.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., also sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and said he fully supports the U.S. aid to Ukraine. He declined to directly address the speaker’s request to fire Markarova.

“I support the speaker. He is the speaker for a reason. I will not comment negatively on his proceedings. He does what he does because he’s the speaker,” McCormick told WORLD.

McCormick believes that supporting Ukraine in its final push serves the United States' international interests.

“Give them the stuff they need, and we can end this war. The problem is that we keep on slow rolling this. It doesn’t help,” McCormick said. “For [Zelenskyy] to come here and give us a plan without us giving him a plan on what we’re going to support him with—that’s unfair. How is he going to be able to know what he’s going to be able to do if he doesn’t even know what he’s going to get?”

When asked what he expects from Zelenskyy’s endgame plan, Wilson said it doesn’t really matter too much. As one of the top Ukraine supporters in the House, he’s ready to back them again.

“I think that it’s really important that dictators not be rewarded by acquisition of additional territory. Bottom line, I will be very supportive of whatever president Zelenskyy proposes. I have faith in him,” Wilson said.

Democrats will have to play a key role in any additional support for Ukraine if the GOP’s conservative flank resists approving it.

Ahead of Zelensky’s meeting with congressional leadership, I asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., if there was anything specific he would need to see in Zelenskyy’s plan.

“I look forward to hearing about his plans for making sure that the Ukrainian people can continue to push back against brutal Russian aggression and arrive at a place where we can achieve a resolution that respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity and also makes clear we will not allow authoritarian dictators like Vladamir Putin to be successful,” Jeffries said.

Lawmakers are away in their districts during the October recess, preparing for election day on November 5. They will return on November 12. If leadership decides to unveil any additional support for Ukraine, the House will have to wait until then to bring it to the floor.