Analysis: Biden and Zelenskyy show different styles

WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy are men of different generations and styles. And with very different missions.

Zelenskyy is fighting to save his nation. Biden to restore a broken world order, without unleashing a world war.

The contrasts were very noticeable on Wednesday. First, the Ukrainian president addressed the US Congress with a vehement call for additional military assistance to repel the Russian invasion, which is in its third week. Then it was Biden's turn, with a more technocratic speech in which he promised more weapons and humanitarian assistance, but clearly specified the limits of what the United States is willing to do.

Zelenskyy, 44, was eloquent despite looking fatigued and unshaven. Dressed in army green, he asked for lethal help in a video conference from a nondescript bunker. Biden, nearly 80 years old, spoke soberly about sanctions and coalition building from a studio built for television next to the White House.

“I am almost 45 years old; today my age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating,” Zelensky told US lawmakers. “I don't see any meaning in life if I can't stop the deaths.”

In his 15-minute speech, he mentioned significant moments of confrontation for the United States: the Pearl Harbor bombing, the September 11, 2021 terrorist attacks, Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for civil rights. He urged Biden to be “the leader of peace.”

It was also the most recent stopover of Zelenskyy's digital tour in its attempt to project Ukraine as a country that defends more than just its own territory, and in which it seeks to provoke even tougher military and other actions against Russia.

“We are fighting for the values of Europe and the world,” he told lawmakers.

Zelenskyy pleaded with the United States to participate more directly in helping its people, including to support Ukraine in obtaining Soviet-made aircraft for use against Russia and in the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory, which he himself acknowledged is unlikely to be concrete.

Biden has warned that meeting these requests could lead Russia and the United States to a direct conflict between two nuclear powers. It's a risk he's not willing to take.

Biden watched Zelenskyy's speech from the White House residence and described it as “powerful.”

His own statements, three hours later and half the length, were less eloquent, delivered from a small television auditorium full of reporters. He talked about what the United States can do right now, but he refrained from granting all of Zelenskyy's wishes.

Biden has spent the last few months working to coordinate NATO allies and G7 partners to support tough economic sanctions against Russia. That began as an attempt to prevent the invasion and has now become a management to ensure that the conflict leaves that country isolated and economically weakened.

Biden listed the US weapons that will be included in the most recent installment of missiles, drones and ammunition. It reviewed the sanctions that have already been imposed on Russia and the humanitarian assistance that is going to Ukraine. However, for the most part — while regretting the horrendous deaths the war has left so far — it projected America's interest in the conflict in terms of protecting democracy around the world, rather than focusing solely on Ukraine.

“What is at stake here are the principles that the United States and the United Nations stand for around the world,” Biden said. “It's about freedom. It's about people's right to determine their own future. It's about making sure that Ukraine is never, ever, a victory for Putin, no matter what progress he makes on the battlefield.”

Max Bergmann, a former State Department official and now a member of the activist and research group Center for American Progress, said that although they share a general stance, Biden and Zelenskyy play very different roles.

For Zelenskyy, “this is an existential threat. The very survival of Ukraine is at stake.” He assured that the Ukrainian president plans “determination and despair.”

Biden, he noted, shows empathy for Zelenskyy's position. “This isn't just about moving pieces on the chessboard. This is defending a country that is fighting for freedom.”

But Biden, he said, has limits. “There's going to be a difference and it's something we need to understand. That's part of what it means to be the leader of the free world, which is to weigh these competing demands.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the different interests.

“If we were President Zelenskyy, we would also be asking for everything possible,” Psaki said. “But the way President Biden makes decisions is through the prism of our own national security.”

Daniel Fried, former US ambassador to Poland, said that Biden's age — and his coming of age during the Cold War — help him understand what is at stake in a different way than Zelenskyy.

“Biden doesn't see Zelenskyy with cold indifference,” Fried commented. “He grew up with those lessons.

“Ukrainians have support. And I think they know that. But there are very difficult tests ahead,” he added.

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Associated Press journalist Colleen Long contributed to this firm.