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SALT LAKE CITY — Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska will be in Salt Lake City for a National Governors Association meeting, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
"We're honored to welcome President Zelenskyy and First Lady Zelenska to Utah and the National Governors Association," the governor posted on X. "Utah stands behind Ukraine and we look forward to hearing his message to the nation's governors."
It was not immediately clear what Zelenskyy would speak about to governors and other assembled business, academic and guests. Zelenskyy is in the U.S. asking for additional aid for Ukraine from the leaders of NATO countries, including U.S. President Joe Biden, who are gathered in Washington, D.C., this week.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that decisive action must be taken before the U.S. presidential election in November to repel Russia's offensive against Ukraine during a speech outside the NATO summit where he pushed for greater support during a pivotal but tumultuous stretch in America's political calendar, the Associated Press reported.
"It's time to step out of the shadows to make strong decisions to act and not wait for November or any other months to descend. We must be strong and uncompromising all together," Zelenskyy said, speaking at the Reagan Institute, named after Republican icon Ronald Reagan.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among the Republican heavyweights in the audience, per the AP.
Former President Donald Trump is skeptical of NATO and has criticized allies for not meeting defense spending goals. Zelenskyy expressed hope that the U.S. would continue to support both NATO and Ukraine if Trump is reelected.
"I hope that if the people of America will elect President Trump, I hope that his policy with Ukraine will not change," Zelenskyy said in a question-and-answer session with Fox News host Bret Baier after his speech. "I hope that the United States will never go out from NATO."
Otherwise, he said, "the world will lose a lot of countries" that "count on America."
Will Ukraine join NATO?
Zelenskyy is seeking aid from NATO as well as membership in the alliance, but NATO won't admit a new member until the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is resolved.
More than 60 foreign policy experts at U.S. universities and thinks tanks argued in a recent open letter against allowing Ukraine to join NATO.
"Dangling NATO membership for Ukraine does a disservice to Ukrainians who are bravely fighting for their independence. The closer NATO comes to promising that Ukraine will join the alliance once the war ends, the greater the incentive for Russia to keep fighting the war and killing Ukrainians so as to forestall Ukraine's integration into NATO," they wrote in the letter first published by Politico.
The academics wrote that the challenges Russia poses can be managed without bringing Ukraine into NATO. "Moving Ukraine toward membership in the alliance could make the problem worse, turning Ukraine into the site of a prolonged showdown between the world's two leading nuclear powers and playing into Vladimir Putin's narrative that he is fighting the West in Ukraine rather than the people of Ukraine."
Whether Zelenskyy will address any of those issues while speaking the nations' governors in Utah isn't known.
The NGA is chaired by Cox, who has made the focus of the group's summer meeting his initiative "Disagree Better." The initiative encourages Americans and lawmakers to find ways to address their differences in a more civil and productive way.
Attendees at the NGA conference in Salt Lake City include more than a dozen governors, former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who is currently president of the University of Florida, and actor Matthew McConaughey.
At the NATO meeting this week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said supporting Ukraine was the defense alliance's "most urgent task." He also said that "Ukraine is moving closer to NATO," a statement that has drawn criticism from some Republican lawmakers.
