Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to use U.S. military assets to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris on a visit to battleground state Pennsylvania on Monday.
On another trip to ask the U.S. government for money and munitions, Zelensky toured a Pennsylvania ammunition plant with Gov. Josh Shapiro, a prominent Kamala Harris surrogate, and other Democrats, including Sen. Bob Casey. Zelensky arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania (President Joe Biden’s oft-referenced birthplace), aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17, images of which he used to advertise his visit. In a message recorded from the inside the aircraft, Zelensky noted, “This fall will determine what’s next in this war.”
“Zelensky is in Pennsylvania today, signing bombs with Gov. Shapiro. Zelensky is also attacking J.D. Vance in the biggest, most important battleground state in the country during an election year,” Sean Parnell, former Pennsylvania Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said at a Trump rally Monday. “Folks, if that ain’t foreign election interference, I don’t know what is.”
Notably, Zelensky’s trip came the day after The New Yorker published an interview in which he criticized former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. Zelensky took issue with Trump’s debate response about the war in Ukraine, in which the Republican said he wanted the war to end.
“Trump makes political statements in his election campaign,” Zelensky said. “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelensky added [emphasis original]. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”
The Ukrainian leader also called Vance “too radical,” saying his plan to end the war with Russia is “just sloganeering.”
“For us, these are dangerous signals, coming as they do from a potential Vice-President. I should say that it hasn’t been like this with Trump,” Zelensky said.
“I don’t take Vance’s words seriously, because, if this were a plan, then America is headed for global conflict,” he continued, comparing a negotiation with Russia to appeasement of Adolph Hitler prior to World War II.
“The Biden-Harris admin is using military assets to fly a foreign leader into a battleground state in order to undermine their political opponents,” Dan Caldwell, public policy advisor at Defense Priorities, posted on social media.
In response to an inquiry from The Federalist, the Department of Defense did not deny the use of American military assets for the trip, but declined to comment on Zelensky’s statements or apparent campaign work.
While not calling out Trump by name, Zelensky appeared to further criticize the former president later in the interview when he went after world leaders for seeking working relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Trump often stresses as key to foreign policy success.
“A lot of world leaders want to have some sort of dealings with Putin, to reach agreements, to conduct some business with him. I look at such leaders and realize that they are very interested in playing this game — and for them, unfortunately, it really is a game,” Zelensky said. “But what makes a real leader? A leader is someone whom Putin needs for something, not a person who needs Putin. Flirting with him is not a sign of strength. Sitting across the table from him might make you believe you’re making important decisions about the world.”
Ironically, Zelensky also said, “I think Ukraine has demonstrated the wisdom of not becoming captured by American domestic politics.”
Zelensky visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant during his trip to Pennsylvania. According to Military.com, the plant is one of a handful in the country that produces a 155 millimeter artillery shell. The United States has already shipped 3 million such shells to Ukraine.
The foreign leader will attend the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday before traveling to the nation’s capital to meet with President Joe Biden and Harris to ask for more military assistance.
The U.S. has already contributed over $56 billion to Ukraine, making it the largest donor in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. The group of about 50 countries has given Ukraine a total of $106 billion since the beginning of the war.
The artillery shells Zelensky inspected, and to which he affixed signatures along with Shapiro, have a range of 15 to 20 miles, but Zelensky has been persistently seeking longer-range missiles to fire into Russia. However, the Biden administration has not approved those munitions, and it has argued that the Ukrainian military already has the capability to fire at Moscow with its own drones.
Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
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