The first foreign trip since the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, which takes place on December 21 to the United States, is reminiscent of the visit of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Washington 81 years ago.

This then led to the strengthening of the Western alliance that eventually won World War II and built the post-war democratic world. 

CNN drew attention to such analogies.

The publication emphasized that this trip by President Zelensky will emphasize the decisive role of US President Joe Biden in the revival of the Western alliance, which for decades restrained the Soviet Union and is now fighting Moscow's new expansionism. 

Once in Washington, Zelensky could feel the same way Churchill did in the American capital, bathed in Christmas lights, after months of darkness at home caused by air raids. 

The British leader crossed the ocean aboard HMS Duke of York, avoiding Nazi U-boats prowling the Atlantic, then boarded a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, D.C., where he was received by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 22, 1941, before a joint press conference the following day. 

After days of discussions and meetings during which Churchill had sherry for breakfast, scotch and juice for lunch, champagne at night and 90-year-old brandy before bed, the two leaders devised a plan to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and lay the groundwork for the Western alliance that Biden revived Ukraine with his support. 

Churchill, who had been pushing for months for the United States to enter World War II and knew full well that it was the key to Hitler's defeat, said at the time: "I spent these holidays away from my country, away from my family, but I cannot say how I felt himself far from home".

Zelensky will no doubt be greeted as a hero, and he will hope that additional US support will mean that Washington has indeed “drawn the sword for freedom and thrown away the scabbard”, as Churchill said of the Roosevelt administration in his address to Congress on December 26, 1941.

The Ukrainian leader will probably appreciate the historical parallels.

Earlier, he had already compared the resistance of Russian aggression to the resistance of the British nation in the face of Nazi bombing and paraphrased one of Churchill's most famous war speeches in an emotional address to British members of parliament.

"We will not give up, we will not lose, we will go to the end," he said.

The Ukrainian president's visit to Washington will draw additional parallels with the meeting between Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt. 

It will be recalled that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi arrived on a working visit to the USA to meet with the American leader Joe Biden and address the Congress.

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