The Reasons President Biden Does Not Want To Visit Ukraine- And Does Not Want A High-Level Official Of The Biden-Harris Administration To Visit Ukraine. And The “Mother” Issue.

The Reasons President Biden Does Not Want To Visit Ukraine- And Does Not Want A High-Level Official Of The Biden-Harris Administration To Visit Ukraine. 

An in-person visit to Ukraine by President Joseph Biden will create energy for the United States and NATO to do more to assist Ukraine. 

Principally, the “more” to assist Ukraine would be defined as not only an increase in quantity of armaments delivered to Ukraine, but an increase in the quality of armaments delivered to Ukraine.  Defined as more tanks, more helicopters, more fixed wing aircraft, more ammunition, and more missiles, and more firearms. 

Saying “no” from 4,864 miles away provides the ultimate buffer zone.  Saying “no” while President Volodymyr Zelensky is standing next to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, or Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is an exercise far more nuanced when there will be two hundred journalists in the room, along with a likely optically-provisioned exchange with a parent who lost a child, wife who lost a husband, or child who lost a family.  

Perhaps, the designated-visitor might be The Honorable Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, or The Honorable Samantha Power, Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  There are emotional complexities with having a visit by either or both women, who are each parents, and would necessarily project a maternal reaction to that the attack by the Russian Federation upon Ukraine has impacted families.   

The Biden-Harris Administration (2021- ) feared moment: A meeting with Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, along with her two young children… and her message- “You are both parents, mothers.  How can you permit this to continue?  President Biden, a father and grandfather, must help us- and help us now.”  

The White House could also elect to send a delegation led by a Deputy Secretary-level official.  If the Biden-Harris Administration sends an official who is not cabinet-rank, President Zelensky will feel slighted, he will be correct, and he will voice that disappointment. 

Since 15 March 2022, four presidents, five prime ministers, one chancellor, one deputy prime minister, three foreign ministers, president of European Commission (EC), president of the European Council (EC), and president of European Parliament (EP) have visited Ukraine.  All of the countries are members of the European Union (EU); nine of the countries are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).    

Officials within the Biden-Harris Administration have become increasingly convinced that an end of full-scale, multi-front combat between the armed forces of Ukraine and the armed forces of the Russian Federation is unlikely.  The likely outcome may be primarily a conflict landscape which existed on 23 February 2022- the Russian Federation controls the Crimean Peninsula and Donbas Region (Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast), but with additional armed conflict in territories of Ukraine along the Black Sea under control of the Russian Federation.  The Russian Federation will not depart the Crimean Peninsula and the territorial boundaries of the Donbas Region will remain unsettled.