Zelensky’s highly choreographed and highly publicized speech before a joint session of Congress represented two major moves by the capitalist-imperialist ruling class. It served as the occasion to send even more dangerous arms to the Ukrainian army, in an imperialist proxy war that continues to pose ever greater dangers. And it served at least a section of the capitalist imperialists who rule this country in their efforts to take a section of people who at one point were more inclined to oppose imperialist moves and rally them under the banner of “democracy vs. authoritarianism.”

So let’s break it down.

On December 21, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington, DC, to meet and hold a brief press conference with U.S. president Joe Biden, and speak at the U.S. Capitol to a joint session of Congress. This was Zelensky’s first trip outside Ukraine since it was unjustly invaded by Russia in February 2022.

That invasion soon developed into a protracted and bloody war between Russian imperialism on one side and Ukraine, backed by U.S./NATO, on the other. It is a proxy war—meaning the U.S. and NATO are using Ukrainian military forces (and civilians) as cannon fodder to fight a war against Russia, their imperialist rival. U.S. general Mark Milley recently estimated that there have been “well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded” and said, “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.” United Nations official Filippo Grandi reported to the UN Security Council that the dislocation of 14 million Ukrainians by this war is “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades.”

Putin does not carry out this carnage because he is “a power-hungry ‘autocrat.’” Nor does the U.S. spend billions of dollars to further the cause of self-determination of nations. Russia is acting to expand what until recently had been its sphere of domination. The U.S. is fighting to defend—and now to expand and tighten—its own domination in Europe.

The theatrics and choreography of Zelensky’s speech in the Capitol evoked images of the most serious gatherings of U.S. political leadership. The assembled U.S. political leadership overwhelmingly gave him an enthusiastic reception (although more than a half of the House Republicans were not present for the speech, and a few pro-Russian Republi-fascists remained seated during some of his standing ovations).

Zelensky thanked Biden, the assembled politicians, and Americans generally for the massive amounts of “aid” the U.S. has provided Ukraine. How massive? In 2022 alone, the U.S. sent $22.9 billion in total military support, plus $25 billion in financial and “humanitarian” aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky said Ukraine needed more and better arms. To get this, he mentioned episodes in American history intended to arouse the “patriotism” (that is, the disgusting America-first chauvinism) of his audience, and the U.S. public more generally.

In the wake of Zelensky’s trip, the U.S. Congress pledged a $45 billion “aid package” for Ukraine in next year’s federal budget, which will bring the total of U.S. funding for Ukraine in less than a year to almost $100 billion. This is in addition to a nearly $2 billion package of weapons for Ukraine, including the long-range Patriot missiles Zelensky has long sought, which was announced while he was en route. The Patriots are something beyond what the U.S. has previously given Ukraine and signal that they feel that they can and must risk escalating the war.  This takes place in a situation in which a nuclear “Armageddon” already threatens,  a point that Biden himself blurted out in the fall.

Lining up the Liberals Behind Imperialist War

Perhaps just as significant, Zelensky threw himself into the Biden administration’s attempt to mobilize broad sections of the American people—including many liberals who have opposed previous U.S. aggression—behind this war.  (This not only pertains to Ukraine but also to what is shaping up as the larger battle to defend and expand the U.S. empire up against China.  Go here and here for more on that.)

Zelensky claimed the fight is bigger than Ukraine. The battles in Ukraine, he said, are “not only for the territory for this or in other part of Europe. The battle is not only for life, freedom, and security of Ukrainians or any other nation which Russia attempts to conquer.

“This struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live, and then their children and grandchildren. It will define whether it will be a democracy of Ukrainians and for Americans, for all.”

In fact, neither Biden nor Congress gives a fuck about the children and grandchildren of Ukrainians, whom they are quite eager to march off into further grinding slaughter.  What Biden does care about is giving people an ideology to unite behind—in this case, “democracy vs. autocracy.”  As Bob Avakian points out in the accompanying video, this is hypocrisy—very deadly hypocrisy—of the highest order.

Zelensky’s deceitful message was greeted rapturously by the mainstream liberal U.S. media. Time  Magazine named Zelensky “Person of the Year.” The headline of David Brooks’ New York Times column on Zelensky’s speech was typical of the acclaim heaped upon him: “Biden’s America Finds Its Voice.”

Brooks wrote that Zelensky’s speech “reminded Americans of the values and causes we used to admire in ourselves—the ardent hunger for freedom, the deep-rooted respect for equality and human dignity, the willingness to fight against brutal authoritarians who would crush the human face under the heel of their muddy boots,” and that his “words reminded us that America supports Ukraine not only out of national interest—to preserve a stable liberal world order—but also to live out a faith that is essential to this country’s being and identity. The thing that really holds America together is this fervent idea.”

Really?

• Hunger for freedom? Respect for equality and human dignity?!?  Bullshit! This country was founded on the outright genocide of Native Americans and theft of their land. Its wealth was built on the backs of enslaved Africans and people of African descent. It currently imprisons more people, by far, than any other country on Earth. Generation after generation of Black, Brown, and Native American youths have spent all or much of their lives behind bars.
• Opposed to brutal authoritarianism? Bullshit!  The U.S. has launched genocidal wars and backed and organized coups, invasions, assassinations, and worked for the overthrow of governments and leaders all over the world: Chile, Venezuela, Panama, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Congo, for a few examples. It has provided political and military support for some of the world’s most brutal and harshly repressive regimes—like Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Haiti, apartheid South Africa. The list goes on. Read the Revolution series “American Crime” to get a fuller picture of this roll of horrible atrocities, which Brooks surely knows about when he writes bullshit like the quote above.  After all, Brooks himself banged the drums for the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, which illegally and unjustly murdered many more people than Russia has (so far) killed in Ukraine.¹ 

• A Stable World Order?  Yet More Bullshit! Did the U.S. impose crippling sanctions on Venezuela that have led to 7 million people, one quarter of the country, being forced out of their homeland, and sending tremors across the western hemisphere, in the interest of world stability?² Does the U.S. have aircraft carriers, battleships, and fighter jets playing “nuclear chicken” with their Chinese counterparts to promote peace and harmony?

Zelensky’s “feel-good-about-American-aggression” visit should make more clear than ever that, as Bob Avakian has said, “We can no longer allow these imperialists to dominate the world and to determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible.”

At the same time, when governments go to war they are in many ways more vulnerable than ever—if there is a force for revolution, forcefully and daringly speaking the truth to people and organizing to put an end to these horrors the only way they can be ended: through revolution.  Go here and here to listen to Bob Avakian run this down in his new Interviews, “Up Close and Personal With Bob Avakian: Heart and Soul & Hard-Core For Revolution.” and get with the revcoms to put this orientation into practice.