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Olena Selenska during an event in Kiev (symbolic image).
© Kirill Chubotin/Imago
The first lady of Ukraine and the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny should form an impressive backdrop for Biden's speech.
But both refuse.
Washington – Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, has declined an invitation from the White House.
She was actually supposed to attend the State of the Union address on Thursday (March 7) at the request of US President Joe Biden.
But the wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyj prefers not to - and in doing so underlines how complicated politics is in her war-torn country.
Because of Navalny's role: Zelensky's wife rejects invitation from Joe Biden
The intention was to place first lady Jill Biden close to Zelenska and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month.
The image of the two women, both symbols of resistance to Russian President Vladimir Putin, would provide a powerful backdrop for President Biden's address to a joint session of Congress.
But Navalnaya's possible presence caused unease among Ukrainians, people familiar with the deliberations in Kiev said.
Although her late husband is widely celebrated as an anti-corruption icon and Putin's adversary, his legacy in Ukraine has been tarnished by previous statements.
He once held the view that Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, belonged to Russia.
Although Navalny's views later evolved into support for Ukraine's internationally recognized 1991 borders, many Ukrainians see him as out of step with Kiev's goals.
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“While we in the West always thought of him as someone who fought bravely and courageously against Putin, in Ukraine Navalny is seen as a representative of Russian nationalism and imperialism,” said Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a think tank in Washington.
“Navalny was of course against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but in 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine for the first time, he represented a general Russian view that saw Crimea as part of Russia's historical territories,” Polyakova said.
A White House official said Selenska's decision was likely due to "scheduling conflicts" and referred further questions to her office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Participation in Biden's speech: Julia Navalnaya apologizes for her husband's death
“Julia was actually invited and considered going, but I think everyone forgets the circumstances in which the events unfolded,” Navalnaya spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
“Julia’s husband died two weeks ago.
She was traveling all the time.
Today is the first day she's even been home.
Like any human being, she needs time to recover, and while she greatly appreciates the invitation, she needs to recover at least a little now.”
A U.S. official said the White House likely did not inform Kyiv that Navalnaya had opted out of attending, although her presence was not the only concern of Ukrainians, according to people familiar with the situation who, like several others, wrote for this report People interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to U.S. lawmakers in Washington in September.
© Tom Brenner/The Washington Post
Another problem for Kiev, which is seeking additional security assistance from the US, is the fact that it is seen as too closely aligned with Biden.
The president has been Ukraine's main advocate, but the Ukrainian government has sought to avoid further politicizing the war effort.
Lack of weapons aid: Ukraine is watching the duel between Biden and Trump very closely
Currently, Ukraine is desperately trying to get Republicans in the House of Representatives to allow a vote on Biden's request for $60 billion in aid - a package that likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump rejects.
Ukraine lacks artillery against the better-equipped Russian forces and is beginning to lose strategic cities along the front.
Ukraine is urging lawmakers to support the funding measure but doesn't want to alienate Republicans, who could control the White House next year depending on the outcome of the November election.
“Ukrainians are very sensitive to our domestic political dynamics,” Polyakova said.
When Zelensky traveled to Washington in December, he went to great lengths to portray aid to Ukraine as a bipartisan issue.
“He had to walk a fine line to avoid appearing to be too supportive of President Biden, even though he obviously supports Biden's agenda to arm and equip Ukraine,” she said.
Each year, the First Lady invites a number of personalities to her State of the Union address, and the President often mentions them in his speech when highlighting or promoting a particular policy or issue area.
State of the Union Address: These guests are on Biden's list
The White House has not yet announced the first lady's guests this year, other than Kate Cox, a Dallas-area woman who sought an abortion outside Texas because the state has almost completely banned the procedure.
Cox had sought an abortion after learning that her fetus had a typically fatal genetic disease and that continuing the pregnancy could jeopardize her future fertility.
Last year, Jill Biden brought a number of guests, including Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.
Other guests included Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Holocaust survivor, a father who lost his daughter to a fentanyl overdose and a cancer survivor.
Lawmakers also bring guests, and this year they include the parents of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who is imprisoned in Russia.
Other guests include the first person born in the United States through in vitro fertilization and families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Natalia Abbakumova and Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.
To the authors
John Hudson
is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security.
He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Relations for its coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He has reported from dozens of countries including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus.
Tyler Pager
is a White House reporter at The Washington Post.
He joined the newspaper in 2021 after covering the White House at Politico and the 2020 presidential campaign at Bloomberg News.
He was awarded the 2022 Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on March 6, 2024 at “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.