Harris Assails Trump for Pushing Ukraine to Negotiate With Putin
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris lambasted Donald Trump for seeking to pressure Ukraine to negotiate an end to Russia’s war, defending continued assistance to Kyiv ahead of an election in which the conflict has become a political flashpoint.
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Harris, while she did not mention Trump by name, said those “proposals are the same as those” of Russian President Vladimir Putin as she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday.
“There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who demand that Ukraine accept neutrality and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations,” Harris said. “Let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender.”
Harris’ comments come as Trump — the Republican presidential nominee — has stepped up his criticism of Zelenskiy in recent days and claimed that if he returned to the White House he would force the Ukrainian leader to the table with Putin.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskiy. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now,” Trump said on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy met with Harris after sitting with President Joe Biden, who announced $8 billion in new assistance for Kyiv and sought to assure his counterpart of continued allied support. The Ukrainian president is in Washington to detail a “victory plan” — a blueprint Zelenskiy says is aimed at winning the war.
Zelenskiy’s simmering dispute with Trump, however, has cast a pall over long-term prospects for continued US aid.
Harris on Thursday pushed back on Republican criticism over the administration’s support for Kyiv in its bid to repel Russia’s invasion, saying “the United States supports Ukraine not out of charity, but because it is in our strategic interest.”
Fresh Aid
Biden earlier Thursday announced new military assistance for Ukraine and plans to convene a leader-level meeting of key allies to coordinate additional support when he visits Germany next month. The package includes $2.4 billion for the US to buy weapons and equipment directly from US companies and an additional $5.5 billion to be shipped from existing US weapons stocks.
The shipments will include additional air defense systems, drones, and munitions. Biden is also providing Ukraine with a new long-range munition known as the Joint Standoff Weapon, and has asked the Pentagon to refurbish an additional Patriot air defense battery and expand the F-16 training program for Ukrainian pilots.
The Pentagon will push to allocate the full remainder of Ukraine assistance authorized by Congress before the end of Biden’s term, in an effort to accelerate delivery.
“We have to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield,” Biden said Thursday as he welcomed Zelenskiy to the White House. “We stand with Ukraine now and in the future.”
The US is also moving to disrupt a cryptocurrency network it says has been helping Russia evade sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. And Biden said he was working to ensure that restrictions on the drawdown of US equipment didn’t prevent Ukraine from receiving assistance.
The new steps are in addition to a $375 million weapons package that included rocket systems and artillery announced Wednesday as leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Still, the effort is likely to fall short of some of the security and economic assurances Zelenskiy is expected to seek as part of his proposal, including NATO membership and promises of guaranteed access to certain advanced weapons systems.
Zelenskiy-Trump Clash
Zelenskiy on Thursday said he had met congressional lawmakers and found support from both Democrats and Republicans for Ukraine.
“Together, we have to win. We will win,” he said.
While Zelenskiy met with Harris, Trump declined his offer for a meeting — and mockingly posted a screenshot of the invitation on social media.
The snub came after the New Yorker published an interview in which Zelenskiy called Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance “too radical.” Trump’s campaign was dismayed that Zelenskiy visited the battleground state of Pennsylvania on his US taxpayer-funded trip, according to a person who requested anonymity to detail internal discussions.
--With assistance from Iain Rogers, Roxana Tiron and Michelle Jamrisko.
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