United States: Harris says she would not meet Putin without Ukraine being represented

During an interview with the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said she would not meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine without Kyiv being represented.

If elected president, a meeting with the Russian president couldn’t happen “without Ukraine,” she said in the interview, which aired October 7. “Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine.”

On this major foreign policy issue, the Democratic candidate for the White House sought to clearly differentiate herself from her rival, former U.S. President Donald Trump, just a month before the presidential election.

“We are supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself”

“Donald Trump, if he were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,” she emphasized. “He talks about, ‘Oh, he can end it on day one.’ You know what that is? It’s about surrender.”

Trump regularly claims that if he returns to power, he will end the war in Ukraine even before possibly taking office in January. However, he never specifies how he would do so.

“Right now, we are supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” Kamala Harris reiterated.

When asked about potential support for Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO, she did not want to speculate beyond the presidential election.

“Those are all issues that we will deal with if and when it arrives at that point,” she stated.

At the end of September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the United States, where he met with current President Joe Biden, Harris, and Trump.

Ukraine fears a loss of support

After his meeting with Trump, Zelensky expressed gratitude for a “very productive” meeting during which he presented his “victory plan.”

Ukraine is concerned about losing U.S. support if Trump wins the election. Trump has regularly criticized the enormous sums of money Washington has allocated to Kyiv since 2022.

Before meeting with Zelenskyy, the Republican leader had referred to him as “the best salesman on the planet.” “Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with $60 billion,” he joked.

In contrast, Biden vowed that “Russia will not prevail.” During his meeting with Zelenskyy, he announced an “increase in security aid”—though he did not mention the hoped-for approval from Kyiv to launch U.S.-made long-range missiles toward Russia.