President Biden on Monday invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit the White House sometime this summer, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The announcement came after Zelensky, a former comedian who was elected president of Ukraine in 2019, aired his grievances to the press over the weekend with regard to Biden’s decision making on Russia.
He condemned Biden’s failure to stymie development of a major Russian pipeline, and urged the U.S. president to meet with him before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on June 16, the final stop on Biden’s upcoming European tour. Biden has said his trip to the continent is about “rallying the world’s democracies.”
Zelensky told Axios he was surprised and disappointed that Biden had not done more to prevent the development of Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline that would allow Russia to further isolate Ukraine. Zelensky called the project “a real weapon … in the hands of the Russian Federation.”