Political analyst names the real reasons for Zelensky’s absence at Trump’s inauguration

21 January 13:46

OPINION

Yesterday, the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, took place, but it was not attended by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He had previously stated that he would gladly attend the event if invited, but he never received an invitation from Trump.

Instead, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova officially represented our country. She posted the relevant photos on Facebook.

It should be reminded that Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017 was attended by a record number of Ukrainian politicians. Among them were Deputy Heads of the Presidential Administration Oleksiy Filatov and Vitaliy Kovalchuk, former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, then Head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, politician without a portfolio Mikheil Saakashvili, MPs Serhiy Lovochkin, Oleksandr Vilkul, Vadym Novynskyi, Oksana Bilozir, and many others.

There were also reports of Yulia Tymoshenko‘s arrival, but later it turned out that she was not there. This time, however, she did make it to Trump’s inauguration on the second attempt. According to Telegraf, Tymoshenko attended the inaugural prayer service.

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Another Ukrainian person who was noticed at Trump’s inauguration was Oleksandra Nikolayenko, Miss Ukraine 2001 and the wife of Trump’s business partner, 89-year-old billionaire Phil Ruffin.

The fact that Trump did not invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the inauguration upset many Ukrainians, and some even drew far-reaching disappointing conclusions. However, this is nothing out of the ordinary, and moreover, Trump’s behavior is in line with international protocol, emphasizes Yevhen Magda, Director of the Institute of World Policy, PhD in Political Science.

“Usually, ambassadors represent the country at the inauguration of an American president. The political leaders who were invited, such as Argentine President Javier Milei or former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, were simply invited by Trump himself. That is, there is nothing extraordinary about it. Zelensky was not supposed to be there,”

– the expert explains.

Commenting on the presence of some Ukrainian women at the ceremony, Magda noted that Nikolayenko was there “by right” because she is married to Trump’s business partner and obviously received the invitation along with her husband. At the same time, the expert criticized Yulia Tymoshenko’s visit.

“Why did Yulia Tymoshenko decide to go there? I think it is better to ask her why she decided to spend money on it. Now it will be interesting for her to answer why, instead of spending this money to help the Armed Forces, she spent it to buy an invitation to watch Trump’s inauguration,”

– said the political scientist.

It is worth noting that during the last inauguration, where Ukrainian politicians were massively “rushed”, it was reported that “tickets” to the events cost from 25 thousand to a million dollars. It is unlikely that Tymoshenko had a personal invitation from Trump; apparently, the politician had to pay for this visit.