The White House announced Monday that President Joe Biden would not attend a ‘peace summit’ scheduled in Switzerland with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but would send Vice President Kamala Harris instead.
The news is a blow to Zelensky who has publicly been pressuring Biden to attend the summit, planned for June 15-16 at the luxury Bürgenstock hotel after the G-7 summit meetings for world leaders in Italy.
Biden has other plans, as he is scheduled to leave the G-7 summit and return to Los Angeles for an A-list fundraiser with former President Barack Obama, actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel will moderate a conversation between Biden and Obama during the fundraiser where tickets go as much as $500,000 for the Biden victory fund.
Last week, Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin would celebrate if Biden did not attend the peace summit.
‘Putin will only applaud his absence, personally applaud it – and standing, at that,’ he said on Tuesday.
He also recorded a video in a Ukrainian war zone publicly urging Biden to attend.
‘I am appealing to the leaders of the world who are still aside from the global efforts of the Global Peace Summit,’ he said, specifically mentioning Biden.
But the White House defended Biden’s decision to skip the summit, as White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby reminded Zelensky that the president remained a fervent supporter of Ukraine.
‘Ukraine has no stronger champion than President Biden and the United States has actively participated in every single one of the previous Ukraine peace summits,’ Kirby said to reporters on Monday.
He added that Biden’s National Security advisor Jake Sullivan would also attend the meeting with Harris, calling it a significant message of support.
‘We’re sending the vice president of the United States and the National Security Adviser to this particular peace summit … that that alone is a high level, very serious representation by the United States,’ he said.
Harris frequently trumpets her contributions to foreign policy on the campaign trail, telling donors that world leaders frequently speak to her about the need for she and Biden to win reelection.
‘I cannot tell you how many times one of those leaders has pulled me aside and talked about how much the world relies on us and on Joe Biden’s leadership,’ she said Wednesday.