Zelensky has flown to Buenos Aires for the swearing-in ceremony of Argentina's new president, Javier Milei. The Ukrainian previously congratulated Milei on winning the election last month and praised him for his support of Ukraine.
Though it is not immediately clear to what extent Argentina may aid Ukraine, considering the latter country’s delicate economic situation, Zelensky’s visit appears to be a “logical” move, explained Dr. Vinicius Vieira, a research associate in international relations at the University of Sao Paulo and an associate professor at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation.
According to Vieira, Zelensky is “clearly fearing defeat” in the Ukrainian conflict and is eager to search for “an alignment,” especially now that the attention of his Western sponsors seems to be focused more on the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“Argentina, although far from being a world power, it is still relevant in terms of political weight, economic weight, although it's facing a major economic crisis,” Vieira remarked. “And of course it's a member of the G20. And G20 is nowadays the main multilateral forum, it even surpassed the United Nations as the main forum, where the destiny of humankind and of the international system of the family of nations shall be discussed.”
The fact that Milei signaled his intent to align with Western powers rather than with the BRICS countries and “other clubs of emerging powers, rising states” also makes Zelensky’s actions seem reasonable, the scholar pointed out.
Meanwhile, Dr. Boris Martynov, head of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia at the MGIMO University, argued that the odds of Zelensky actually receiving actual aid from Latin American states seems rather slim at this point.
Arguing that Milei is unlikely to disregard the stance of other Latin American countries - such as Brazil, Argentina’s second-largest trading partner – who refrained from supplying weapons to Ukraine, Martynov suggested Zelensky is getting desperate because his US and European backers appear less and less enthusiastic about supporting him.
“This is a move by Zelensky that borders on desperation,” Martynov told Sputnik.
He also pointed out that Latin American countries, which have “long realized themselves as independent sovereign states with their own interests on the international stage,” exhibit today a greater degree of sovereignty than the European Union member states by refusing to be pressured by the United States to support the regime in Kiev.