This story is plausible, and makes President Biden look good, but there’s something a little convenient about this incident occurring in June, and only coming to light now:
…a phone call between the two leaders in June played out differently from previous ones, according to four people familiar with the call. [President] Biden had barely finished telling Zelenskyy he’d just greenlighted another $1 billion in U.S. military assistance for Ukraine when Zelenskyy started listing all the additional help he needed and wasn’t getting. Biden lost his temper, the people familiar with the call said. The American people were being quite generous, and his administration and the U.S. military were working hard to help Ukraine, he said, raising his voice, and Zelenskyy could show a little more gratitude.
Administration officials said Biden and Zelenskyy’s relationship has only improved since the June phone call, after which Zelenskyy made a statement praising the U.S. for its generous assistance.
Everybody in their right mind is rooting for the Ukrainians to repel Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion. But that doesn’t automatically mean that Zelensky is always the good guy in any dispute, or that he’s always right. He intermittently succumbs to the temptation of biting the hand that feeds him, or at least snapping at it.
Zelensky made similar complaints about Israel, NATO, and “the whole world.” But the U.S. government, its NATO allies, and the rest of the world are not made of spare military equipment and money. Sending military aid to Ukraine is not a risk-free proposition. However the war ends, Russia will still exist, and likely want revenge upon countries who helped send weapons that were eventually used to kill Russian soldiers.
Then again, some observers may want to cut Zelensky some slack, on account of the fact that the Russian army has been trying to kill him since February.
But the timing of this is convenient for the administration, coming about a week after aspiring House speaker Kevin McCarthy and many House progressives separately expressed wariness about continued U.S. support for Ukraine. Many U.S. supporters of Ukraine may wonder just how much the U.S. is expected to pay to keep Ukraine in the fight, and for how long. This anecdote about Biden seems like a gift-wrapped leak to ensure everyone knows Biden is willing to stand up to Zelensky when the Ukrainian president starts taking U.S. assistance for granted.