Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky is back in the United States in an attempt to rally more support for his country's defensive war against Russia. But while his past visits have largely remained standard fare for foreign dignitaries (aside from his refusal to wear anything but olive drab), this latest trip has Republicans justifiably crying foul. 

Zelensky arrived in Pennsylvania on Monday, a hotly-contested election battleground state, courtesy of a U.S. taxpayer-funded C-17 Globemaster. What followed looked and sounded much more like a campaign stop than a diplomatic event, leaving onlookers to wonder exactly what the real purpose was. 

The day kicked off with a visit to a Scranton-based arms factory to provide positive press to Democrats, including Sen. Bob Casey who is currently locked in a tight battle with Republican Dave McCormick. The Ukrainian president then proceeded to trash JD Vance and Donald Trump to a reporter. 

Zelensky is now touring ammunition factories in Pennsylvania and attacking President Trump and JD Vance in American media outlets.

A foreign leader is essentially campaigning for Harris on American soil. pic.twitter.com/580etLK72l

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 23, 2024

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to stop the war in Ukraine, despite claiming he could end it on his first day as US president, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

In his harshest criticism yet of the Republican presidential nominee, the Ukrainian president also described Trump’s running mate JD Vance as “dangerous” and “too radical”.

“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Vance in an interview with the New Yorker magazine before he flew to the US to present his “Victory Plan” to the White House this week. “But I believe that we have shielded America from total war.”

(...)

“Whichever president or vice-president raises this prospect, that ending the war hinges on cementing the status quo, with Ukraine simply giving up its land, should be held responsible for potentially starting a global war,” he said.

Frankly, despite being somewhat more sympathetic on the entire Ukraine thing than many on the right, I'm getting a little sick and tired of Zelensky asserting that he's doing Americans a massive favor by having us send him hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons and aid. Ukrainians have a right to fight back against Russian incursions, but they are not doing it to protect the United States. They are doing it to protect themselves.

What's ironic is that war largely becoming a stalemate shows such rhetoric is nonsense. Vladimir Putin was never going to start a broader war with NATO because he knew he would lose. The Russian military is largely antiquated, poorly trained, and even more poorly led. He invaded Ukraine under Joe Biden for the same reason he invaded it under Barack Obama. Namely, to seize territory he sees as ethnically Russian. There is no larger plan for world domination if for no other reason than the reality that such a plan would be impossible to carry out.

Regardless, what Zelensky said and did on Monday is simply insane. He flew over to the United States at the behest of the Biden-Harris administration to trash their political opponents in a battleground state. 

Zelensky is openly campaigning for Democrats in battleground Pennsylvania today some 50 days out from our Presidential election.

Unreal.

— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 23, 2024

I am old enough to remember when using taxpayer resources to obtain purely partisan domestic political benefits from Zelenskyy was considered an impeachable offense. https://t.co/MD2aaTQCnk

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 23, 2024

Is Zelensky going after Trump and Vance because Democrats have prodded him to do so in exchange for taxpayer-funded support? Short of someone spilling the beans on what has been said behind the scenes, we may never know, but it sure seems like it. The appearance of impropriety is extensive, and the practical aspects of using government resources to have Zelensky come essentially campaign for Democrats six weeks before a major election is highly inappropriate. I get that there will be no impeachment inquiry into this, but in a government that wasn't eaten up with corruption, there would be.  

Lastly, there's the question of whether this will backfire. Zelensky's penchant for partisanship is doing nothing but further marginalizing support for Ukraine. It's stupid and counter-productive to come to America and attack half the country. His trip also makes Democrats look like they are more concerned with helping foreign nations than their own constituents. Everything about this was misguided at best and highly corrupt at worst.