WASHINGTON -- At a Pennsylvania munitions factory where 155-mm artillery shells are churned out by the thousands, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy grinned and shook hands, and he signed one of the shells that the Ukrainian military is heavily dependent on.
"It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail," he said in a post on X, "thanks to people like these -- in Ukraine, in America, and in all partner countries -- who work tirelessly to ensure that life is protected."
The munitions plant was Zelenskiy's first stop on a weeklong visit to the United States, a trip shaping up to be one of the most consequential trips for the Ukrainian leader since Russia launched its all-out invasion in February 2022.
In speeches at the United Nations and meetings at the White House, Zelenskiy is hoping to rally the world to his cause fighting Europe's largest land war since World War II -- and also get permission to expand his military's ability to hit Russia more forcefully inside Russia itself.
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Global attention on the Ukraine war is waning, increasingly eclipsed by the widening conflict in the Middle East. In the United States, Americans are increasingly impatient with U.S. support for Ukraine, sentiments channeled by Donald Trump, the former president and Republican candidate in the November 5 election. And on the ground, Russian troops continue to grind forward in eastern Ukraine even as they suffer immense losses, closing in on the key cites of Pokrovsk and Vuhledar.
"It's important for Ukraine to present some kind of consistent and realistic vision on how specifically assistance from the West can help it achieve its strategic goals," Mikhail Alexseev, a political science professor at San Diego State University, told RFE/RL.
Global South In Focus
Zelenskiy will address the UN General Assembly in New York on September 25, where he is expected to remind the world of Russia's invasion, launched in February 2022.
Zelenskiy will need to focus his address in particular on the Global South, said Andriy Veselovskiy, Ukraine's former representative to the European Union.
That's a term that refers to the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, most of which are ambivalent at best about the war, concerned more about the dangers of economic turmoil or spiking food prices. Many nations in that loose grouping view the fighting as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
All of the 40 nations that abstained or voted against a March 2022 UN resolution condemning Russia's invasion were located in the Global South.
"Ukraine needs to avoid the separation of the West and South on the question of Ukraine," Veselovskiy told RFE/RL. "We need to at least make the positions of some countries milder. We need to change the mood on the question of Ukraine."
The Global South broadly speaking has leverage with Russia, experts said, given that the Kremlin has destroyed its relationship with the West. But right now, the mood is that Ukraine should make the effort to hold talks with the Kremlin, said Richard Gowan, the UN director for International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization.
"There's a sense that it's really time for Ukraine to sit down and negotiate with Russia," Gowan told RFE/RL. "There may not really be an appreciation of how difficult it would be for the Ukrainians to get a viable deal with Moscow."
West Wing
Zelenskiy's visit to the White House on September 26 will be just as consequential, if not more so.
Despite Ukraine's daring incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August, Russian forces continue to grind forward in Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded for months for not only more weaponry; Washington is the single largest supplier of arms and equipment, including the artillery shells from the Pennsylvania factory.
During his meeting with President Joe Biden, Zelenskiy will also request permission to use U.S. long-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia like depots and airfields housing fighter jets.
Those jets are being used with devastating consequences by Russia, dropping heavy, guided bombs that flatten entire city blocks or obliterate Ukrainian defensive positions and are difficult to shoot down. The bombs have also heavily damaged the country's energy infrastructure.
Up to 4,000 such bombs are being dropped on eastern Ukraine each month, Zelenskiy told CNN in an interview last week.
For that reason, Ukrainian commanders want to use Western weaponry to hit Russian airfields.
Biden administration officials have so far denied Ukraine's request, fearing it would cross a red line for Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this month suggested such long-range fire would turn the tide in the war.
Alexseev said Kyiv cannot outright win in a war of attrition, but it can push back Russian troops by disrupting supply lines.
Last week, Ukraine hit two ammunition depots far beyond the front line, apparently with homemade drones. At one depot in the Tver region, up to three months of munitions may have been destroyed, according to estimates by Estonia's defense intelligence agency.
Critics of the U.S. policy have pointed out that several of the Kremlin's apparent red lines have already been crossed in the past with no repercussions.
However, Biden may be more cautious this time with the U.S. presidential election just six weeks away, experts said.
Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president, is running neck-and-neck with Trump in the election campaign, according to many polls.
Some Republicans, like Trump running mate Senator JD Vance, say the United States should not give more aid, arguing Kyiv has little chance of driving Russia out.
Other Republicans oppose it on the grounds the money could be better spent at home.
Though Ukraine is not at the top of most Americans' concerns for the election, the question has resonated with some voters, and polls have shown growing American impatience.
Victory Plan
Zelenskiy is also expected to unveil his "victory plan" -- a detailed road map to end the war as Ukraine sees it.
Few details of the plan have been released, though Zelenskiy administration officials have signaled they think it is realistic and achievable, so long as it gains Western backing.
"Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year. Our victory plan will help bring Russia to peace in practice," Zelenskiy said after meeting with a group of Republican and Democratic senators on September 24.
"Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States," he said in a post on Telegram.
More Money, More Weapons, More Aid
Regardless of who wins the presidency and control of Congress on November 5, U.S. aid to Ukraine next year is most likely to decline from the $61 billion package passed in April, analysts said.
By how much will depend on various factors, including which party comes out on top.
Democrats would likely support a larger package than the Republicans. Harris has clearly stated she wants Ukraine to prevail in the war.
Trump, meanwhile, has dodged the question, saying only that he wants the war to end, but has given few details of how that would happen.
Zelenskiy's visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania was in part aimed at reminding lawmakers and American voters that aid to Ukraine also generates jobs in the United States, Alexseev said.
"It's obviously important to highlight that benefit as it has a broad appeal to the traditional Democratic base but also to the Republican base, since a lot of support for Trump is based on grievances about the loss of manufacturing jobs," he said.
