U.S. offers more support to Ukraine as new diplomat appointed

Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of
Representatives aimed at widening military assistance and granting Ukraine the
status of U.S. major non-NATO ally, enabling the U.S. to provide Ukraine with
weapons under a simplified procedure, the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine reported on
its Facebook page May 31. The bill aims to enhance Ukraine’s defense by
“providing military hardware, selling lethal weapons to Ukraine’s Armed Forces,
as well as enhancing Ukraine’s ability to confront Russia’s cyberattacks,” the
U.S. Embassy said. The list of supplied hardware provided would be expanded to
anti-tank, anti-ship and anti-air systems. Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said
the legislation “is an important signal for strong strategic partnership of the
two countries” in a statement on June 1 published on the presidential
administration website.  He thanked the U.S. for consistent support for
Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The White House extended an invitation for Ukrainian President
Zelenskiy to make an official visit to Washington following an expected meeting
between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin, the dt.ua news site
reported on June 1. “A meaningful discussion will take place on resolving the
conflict in Donbas,” the report said. “An important question for Zelenskiy
during the talks: For what have American taxpayers spent their dollars for so
many years in Ukraine? The time has come for real business projects: land,
natural gas extraction, ports, and so forth.” The Presidential Administration
confirmed it received the invitation on May 30, as reported by the
pravda.com.ua news site. Zelenskiy also issued a statement thanking U.S.
President Trump for the invitation. No date has been announced for a Trump-Putin
meeting.

Kristina Kvien arrived on May 31 in Kyiv as the charge
d’affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine after Marie Yovanovitch completed her
three-year tenure as U.S. ambassador. Kvien last served as acting deputy chief
of mission/minister counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in
France between 2016 and April 2019, the U.S. embassy website reported.
Previously, she served as the director for EU, Ukraine and Belarus affairs at
the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President, as well
as the U.S. Embassy in Russia.

Zenon Zawada: For several
years, we have held the position that enhancing military supplies to Ukraine
won’t deter Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on all fronts, at best
providing resistance on the battlefield. Instead, the Russian leadership has
been willing to bear the exorbitant costs of its hybrid war on the Ukrainian
state, viewing control of the Ukrainian territory as essential to its national
security interests. Expanding U.S. military involvement in Ukraine merely
convinces the Russians further of the need to retake control of Ukraine.

It’s unclear when the next U.S. ambassador to
Ukraine will be appointed considering the high tensions between U.S. President
Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress, especially over issues related to Russia
and Ukraine. The Democrats need to maintain the narrative that Trump is
friendly with Putin and hostile to Ukraine. So they will lean towards rejecting
most any of Trump’s nominations to this sensitive post.