President Zelensky Personifying Hubris By Stating Ukraine Will Not Participate In G20 Summit In Bali If Russia, A Member Of The G20, Participates.  President Biden Too Won’t Meet With President Putin To Discuss Ukraine.  That’s Two Counts Of Negligence.  

G20 Summit In Bali Demonstrates President Widodo’s Focusing On Opportunities Rather Than Obstacles 

“My personal position and that of Ukraine was that if the leader of the Russian Federation was to take part, Ukraine would not be participating,” 

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary Definition of hubris: exaggerated pride or self-confidence.  “English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of their mortality.” 

What right does Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, have to reject-in-advance any potential opportunity for a change in any facet of the commercial, economic, military, or political impact of the invasion and further invasion into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 by the armed forces of the Russian Federation? 

He is correct to be skeptical.  He is correct to be suspicious.  He is correct to be dubious.  He is not correct in recoiling from an opportunity, perhaps illusionary, perhaps fleeting, perhaps incomplete but nonetheless an opportunity. 

Irresponsible for the government of Ukraine to reject participation as a guest at the 15/16 November 2022 G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, particularly when Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia, traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Zelensky and traveled to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to personally extend invitations to each head of state.   

Elected in 2014 and re-elected to a second and final term in 2019, President Widodo is the 7th President of Indonesia.  

• Members of the G20: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union (EU) representing collectively its twenty-seven country members. 

Negligent too for President Zelensky to forgo an opportunity to visit at the G20 Summit with Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China; Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkiye.  

President Zelensky has criticized members of the G20 for what he considers their lack of support for Ukraine.  Participating in the G20 Summit would permit he a face-to-face opportunity to advocate against their position and for his position.  Why forgo that particularly when the global taxpayer-funded financial faucet for Ukraine in 2023 will be stressed due to budgetary constraints in every country. 

If President Putin does not attend the G20 Summit, that provides further opportunities for President Zelensky and his delegation to present their position to the delegations.  

While the citizens of Ukraine, and other countries, are dying in the war, other countries are financing (through their respective taxpayer borrowing) the government of Ukraine.  Thus far, the United States is nearing US$60 billion and will reach US$100 billion by 23 February 2023.  Collectively, the twenty-seven member countries of the European Union (EU) along with Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, and other countries, along with taxpayer-funded international financial institutions, will have also borrowed approximately US$100 billion through 2023.  Lobbyists and advocates retained (and pro bono) by the government of Ukraine remain active in seeking additional funds, particularly from United States taxpayers.    

The Hill
Washington DC
3 November 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said his country may not participate in next month’s Group of 20 (G-20) summit if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends.  “My personal position and that of Ukraine was that if the leader of the Russian Federation was to take part, Ukraine would not be participating,” Zelensky said at a news conference.  Leaders of the world’s largest economies will gather in Bali, Indonesia, next month for the group’s annual summit, but it remains unclear if Putin will attend.  The Kremlin said Putin discussed the summit with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during a phone call on Wednesday, but the Kremlin’s statement notably did not indicate whether Putin will participate.  As opposed to Russia and the U.S., Ukraine is not a G-20 member.  But Widodo, who currently chairs the group, extended an invitation this spring for Ukraine to participate in the summit amid Russia’s invasion of the country.  President Biden, who is slated to attend, indicated last month that he had no plans to meet with Putin at the summit, and Politico reported that U.S. officials are working to avoid the duo crossing paths.  “Look, I have no intention of meeting with him. But for example, if he came to me at the G-20 and said ‘I want to talk about the release of Griner,’ I’d meet with him. I mean, it would depend,” Biden said last month, referencing WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been imprisoned in Russia for months.  Zelensky for weeks has railed against Russia’s continued membership in the G-20 as he called for the country to also be expelled from the United Nations Security Council and other international bodies.  “How can Russia be among the G-20 if it is deliberately working for starvation on several continents?” Zelensky said last week, after Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal. “This is nonsense. Russia has no place in the G-20.” 

Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Vassy Kapelos of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Power and Politics (10/27/2022) 

• QUESTION: And first you’re looking ahead to the G20 in a few weeks – does President Biden have any plans to meet with Vladimir Putin there?
  SECRETARY BLINKEN: No, he doesn’t.
  QUESTION: And why is that?
  SECRETARY BLINKEN: What we’ve seen is Russia and President Putin have no interest in any kind of meaningful diplomacy to end the aggression that they have committed against Ukraine; in fact, quite the opposite. We’ve seen a doubling, a tripling down of that aggression – the mobilization of more Russian forces, the purported annexation of Ukrainian territory, the loose talk about nuclear weapons, and now this horrific campaign against all of the basic infrastructure of Ukraine so that Ukrainians don’t have power, don’t have lights, don’t have heat, as we get into the winter. So, every sign is pointing to a doubling and tripling down, despite the fact that the Ukrainians continue to take territory back from Russia that was seized in the first months of this aggression. So, if there were a space for meaningful diplomacy, we’d take it. But we don’t see that. And in any event, this has to be resolved directly between Russia and Ukraine. So, if Russia actually wants to talk and is serious about it, it should be talking with the Ukrainian Government.

President Putin packing his bags and departing with nothing more than what he had when he arrived first in Ukraine remains today unlikely.  Another option, preferred by the government of Ukraine, is for the armed forces of Ukraine using weapons provided by members of the thirty-country North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other countries to assist the armed forces of the Russian Federation with their packing chores and providing them with Google Maps routing homeward bound. 

President Zelensky should attend the G20 Summit and so too should the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Finance Minister of Ukraine, and President of the Central Bank of Ukraine. 

The commercial, economic, military, and political issues that exist between the government of the Russian Federation and government of Ukraine will not be resolved by officials representing each engaging solely with those who agree with them and with those with whom they agree.  Negotiations require engagement with the unpleasant and often untrustworthy.  For Ukraine, it must consider the financial burden of others, as unfair that may be.  Neither human resources nor financial resources are infinite. 

Kyiv is 10,347 kilometers (6,433 miles) from Bali.  President Zelensky and his delegation can travel by train from Kyiv to a military base in Poland for a non-stop flight courtesy of the EU, Turkiye, United Nations, or United States among other countries.

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