Harris and Trump host Ukranian Zelensky
Mr Trump and Ms Harris both met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late last week, in a brief diversion from their usual focus on domestic policy.
During joint remarks with Mr Zelensky in Washington D.C., Ms Harris accused some Republicans of essentially taking Russia’s side in its war against Ukraine.
“There are some in my country who would force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory. Who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality. And would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations,” she said.
“These proposals are the same of those of Putin. And let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”
During the aforementioned debate, Ms Harris accused her opponent of being easily “manipulated” by autocrats.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. The eastern European nation has, to a large extent, been reliant on Western aid to help it resist Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
Ahead of his own meeting with the Ukrainian leader, Mr Trump said he believed he would “be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelensky quite quickly”.
He has previously expressed confidence that he could broker such a deal before even taking office, should he win in November. Pressed for details, he has not specified what such a deal would entail – whether it would, for example, involve Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.
“What does that deal look like?” a reporter asked him last week.
“I don’t want to tell you what that looks like,” Mr Trump responded.
There is a somewhat fraught history between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky. A phone call between the pair was the catalyst for Mr Trump’s first impeachment when he was president (the second impeachment was instigated by the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021).
In that phone call, Mr Trump pressured his counterpart to start an investigation, in Ukraine, into Mr Biden, who at that time was considered Mr Trump’s most likely opponent in the 2020 presidential election, and the business dealings of his son, Hunter.
Mr Trump was accused of abusing the powers of his office by delaying military aid to Ukraine, giving him leverage to pressure a foreign country to interfere in America’s domestic politics. The Republican-controlled US Senate acquitted him in the impeachment trial.
Speaking alongside Mr Zelensky in New York on Friday, Mr Trump argued that his “very good relationship with President Putin” would lead to a quick resolution of the war.
“We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal made,” he said.
“It should stop. And the President (Mr Zelensky” wants it to stop, and I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop, and that’s a good combination.”
Mr Trump spent a chunk of his remarks talking about the impeachment, thanking Mr Zelensky for being “like a piece of steel” during the saga.
“He could have grandstanded and played cute, but he didn’t do that,” said Mr Trump.
“He said, ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ He said it loud and clear, and the impeachment hoax died right there.”
That is not a direct quote of Mr Zelensky, whose stance throughout the impeachment drama was as you would expect from a foreign leader – he tried to stay out of it.
Posting on social media after his departure from New York, the Ukrainian President said his discussions with Mr Trump had been “meaningful”.
