He had not even set foot in Ukraine after being welcomed as a hero by Joe Biden in the White House and as a bulwark of the free world in the American Congress that Moscow's wrath fell inexorably against Volodymyr Zelensky.
"He is the son of a bitch of the West and therefore everything is allowed to him," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, attacked bluntly, a few hours after the Ukrainian president was greeted with applause , tears and standing ovations from US deputies and senators on Capitol Hill.
A passionate speech lasting about twenty minutes during which Zelensky wanted to remind the Americans and the whole world that aid to Kiev "is not charity" but an investment in the future of democracy and global security.
From the temple of Western democracy, the leader of Kiev did not speak only to the United States and Europe, but wanted to address the Russian people directly, urging them to free themselves from the tyranny of Vladimir Putin.
An affront to the Kremlin which, through its spokesman, accused the United States of "fighting a de facto war against Russia".
"This visit proves it, as it shows that there is no willingness to listen to Moscow", thundered Dmitri Peskov, according to whom "neither Biden nor Zelensky said words that could be seen as a potential willingness to listen to Russia's concerns" .
ANSA. it
The 3 February EU-Ukraine summit in Brussels.
Invited Zelensky - Europe
(HANDLE)
Putin for his part obviously didn't like the American president's announcement of sending Patriots to Ukraine but, as always, he flaunted security by branding them as "obsolete".
“They say they will send them to Ukraine.
Then he replied to Biden and Zelensky that in their meeting in the White House they repeatedly stressed the absence of signals from Russia of wanting to open negotiations to resolve the conflict.
A concept reaffirmed in the press conference at the end of the year also by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, according to whom from Moscow "there is no significant signal of a willingness to negotiate".
And again: "Our goal is to end this war, we are aiming for this. The sooner it ends, the better. The sooner our adversaries realize that it is necessary to negotiate, the better it will be".
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Zelensky's historic visit, the White House wanted to take stock of the state of the war, placing particular emphasis on the dangerousness of the Wagner private militia.
"His influence in the conflict is growing", warned US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby in a press briefing, specifying that "Wagner spends 100 million a month on the war and has 50,000 men deployed, 10,000 of whom are contractors and 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons".
Not only that, the mercenaries of the brigade and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, "
