Zelensky "failed" the first meeting with Biden, - The Guardian
The first face-to-face meeting between Ukrainian and US Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden was a "failure": Zelenskyy persistently demanded that Biden accept Ukraine into NATO.
This is stated in Franklin Foer's book titled "The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future," Censor.NET reports citing The Guardian.
"The Last Politician will be published next week, but The Guardian has already received a copy of the book.
Foer describes the first meeting between Zelensky and Biden in the Oval Office in September 2021.
"Even Zelensky's most ardent supporters in the Biden administration agreed that he missed the mark," he writes.
The author of the book does not use direct quotes or cite sources when reporting on the 1 September meeting between Biden and Zelensky. But his publisher, Penguin Random House, says the book is based on "unprecedented access to the narrow inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades."
According to him, Zelenskyy sought a meeting at the White House. Trump did not want to meet with him, as Zelensky refused to collect dirt on the political opponents of the then US president, including Biden.
Foer argues that Zelensky was harbouring "old grudges after the episode" and "at least subconsciously... seemed to blame" Biden, Trump's successor in the Oval Office, "for the humiliation and political problems he suffered".
According to the author of the book, the President of Ukraine considered Biden weak, especially because of his decision in early 2021 to lift sanctions against the Russian company that built Nord Stream 2.
Biden agreed to meet with Zelenskyy, but "did not have a high opinion of him," Feuer writes, especially because of the friendly relationship the Ukrainian president had established with right-wing Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas over the Nord Stream decision.
In protest, Cruz blocked the approval of candidates for positions in the State Department.
"Whether he realised it or not, Zelenskyy was complicit in this stunt. It reeked of what the administration considered amateurishness. In truth, Biden did not think highly of his Ukrainian counterpart," the book says.
Recalling Biden's role in US-Ukrainian relations under Barack Obama, which sparked Trump's interest in Zelensky, Foer writes that the former US vice president was "longer and deeper immersed in Ukrainian politics than Zelensky".
The official transcript of Biden and Zelenskyy's speech to journalists on 1 September 2021 contains declarations of mutual respect and common political goals. But, according to Feuer, as soon as the meeting began, Zelenskyy "seemed oblivious to Biden's doubts" and "almost deliberately disregarded Biden's moral code."
Feuer writes that Biden expected an expression of gratitude for US support. Instead, Zelenskyy "filled his theses with a long list of demands". Chief among them: "He needs to join NATO."
Biden was 78 years old at the time. Zelenskyy was 43. According to Feuer, the elder president "tried to impart wisdom that could temper the younger one's ardour". In particular, he noted that at the time there was not enough support for Ukraine's accession to NATO.
"Zelenskyy's frustration has eclipsed his capacity for logic. After begging to join NATO, he started lecturing about how the organisation is essentially a historical relic whose importance is diminishing. He told Biden that France and Germany were going to leave NATO. It was an absurd analysis and a blatant contradiction. And it infuriated Biden," Feuer writes.
