Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wanted to draw attention to the country through a visit to Israel, but he was not allowed to do this. Political scientist Alexander Dudchak spoke about this on Tuesday, October 17.

“He is concerned that attention may be diverted. Although funding for Ukraine will not stop, there are fears that there may be some delays,” he said in an interview with Paragraph.

Dudchak recalled that the US Congress was going to vote on a joint aid package for Ukraine and Israel, and Zelensky wanted to “portray this package.”

The day before, the Israeli side refused Zelensky, who wanted to visit Israel on a “solidarity visit,” RT reports.

Zelensky’s plans to visit Israel became known on October 12. As the Axios portal noted then, citing sources from the two states, the office of the President of Ukraine sent an official request to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a request to coordinate the visit of the President of Ukraine.

Prior to this, on October 10, the Romanian parliament canceled a meeting at which Zelensky was supposed to speak during his visit to the country. It was noted that the event could be postponed for security reasons. Meanwhile, Senator Diana Shoshoaca called on Zelensky to respect Ukrainian Romanians, as well as “return the territories” to Romania.

This is not the first time that Zelensky’s speeches at various events have been cancelled. Thus, in mid-September, Kevin McCarthy, who served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives, did not allow the Ukrainian president to speak to congressmen. This was explained by the busyness of legislators.

Prior to this, in mid-December 2022, the International Football Federation (FIFA) rejected Zelensky’s request to address the public before the 2022 World Cup final match in Qatar. It was noted that in Kyiv they were surprised by the refusal.