On arrival in Ireland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he could forget some of the mistakes made on the part of US President Joe Biden.
Zelensky landed at Shannon Airport in County Clare at noon and hugged Prime Minister Simon Harris as he walked down the ramp of his state plane, they also shook hands. Ukraine’s ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko also attended the meeting.
It is their first bilateral meeting on Irish soil and the main topic will be the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. Harris confirmed Ireland’s membership of an international coalition to return some 20,000 children and expressed Ireland’s full support for Ukraine’s EU membership aspirations. The Prime Minister went on to reiterate his trip to Kyiv and that he had invited Zelensky to pay an official visit to Ireland.
The meeting drew reporters with a variety of questions, one of them being what message the Ukrainian President wants to send when arriving in Ireland. Zelensky stated: “First of all, thank you so much for your support, thank you to Ireland for hosting a lot of Ukrainian refugees, you were with us from the very beginning of the Russian invasion.”
Besides, the Ukrainian president was also questioned on his feeling about the mistake made by US President Joe Biden. Earlier, the 81-year-old presedent introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at the NATO summit and then during a press conference organised by his aides, confused the names of his vice president, Kamala Harris, with Donald Trump, who faced the assassination attempt on Saturday.
“It’s a mistake. I think the United States gave a lot of support for Ukrainians. We can forget some mistakes, I think so.”
Although Biden quickly corrected himself by exclaiming that the Ukrainian leader would actually “beat” Putin, another mistake on the president’s part has drawn even more attention to his age and speculation about his mental capacity, coming weeks after his failed performance in the first 2024 presidential debate against Republican rival Trump.
The criticism from the media came after the debate, which stated the same claim in different words, that the 81-year-old president is not physically and mentally capable of running the US for another four years. Biden’s speech at the NATO summit has sparked an even greater influx of criticism from the media, which are calling on Democrats to replace Biden as soon as possible if they still want to win Trump in the November election, despite the respectful support of European leaders.
