Harris slams proposals that Ukraine cede territory to Russia during Zelensky meeting

WASHINGTON — As U.S. support for Ukraine finds itself at a partisan crossroads, Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday criticized suggestions that kyiv should cede territory in the name of peace with Moscow, calling them ” dangerous and unacceptable.

The Democratic presidential candidate spoke alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as she unleashed veiled criticism of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly reach a deal to end the war.

“These are not peace proposals,” Harris said. “Instead, these are proposals for surrender.”

His comments are a reminder of the high stakes of the war effort in this year’s elections. Trump, for his part, criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and blamed Zelensky for the ongoing bloodshed.

Trump said he would meet with Zelenskyy in New York on Friday after days of questions about whether the two leaders would sit down together. He dismissed Harris’ criticism and insisted he only wanted to stop the “horror show that happened.”

When asked if Ukraine should cede territory, Trump replied “we’ll see what happens” and “we need peace.”

Before announcing the meeting with Zelensky, Trump posted on social media a purported message from the Ukrainian leader asking to see him. The message, which has not been confirmed by Ukrainian officials, said that “we must strive to understand each other.”

The decision to publicly disclose what appeared to be private communications, however innocuous, is a reminder of the simmering tension between Trump and Zelensky.

It was a far different impression than the one Harris gave Thursday when she embraced Ukraine’s defense and laid out a broader foreign policy vision rooted in “international order, rules and norms.” Harris rejected calls for the United States to abandon its global role and warned that potential aggressors could become emboldened if Putin emerges victorious.

“The United States supports Ukraine not out of charity, but because it is in its strategic interest,” Harris said.

Zelensky was in Washington to present to the White House and Congress his plans to achieve an end to the war by improving Ukraine’s chances on the battlefield and its eventual leverage at the negotiating table. He is pushing to lift restrictions on the use of long-range Western weapons to strike targets deeper into Russian territory.

No progress on this issue was visible during Zelensky’s visit. However, Biden announced billions more in missiles, drones, munitions and other supplies. The weapons include an additional Patriot missile defense battery and a new delivery of glide bombs that can be deployed from Western fighter jets, increasing their strike range.

Biden has pledged to ensure that all approved funding is disbursed before leaving office, and he has said he plans to convene a meeting with other world leaders focused on Ukraine’s defense during ‘a visit to Germany next month.

“We stand with Ukraine now and in the future,” Biden said alongside Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. “Russia will not win. Ukraine will win.

Ukrainian officials are keen to maintain good relations with whoever becomes the next president of the United States, who is its main supplier of weapons, money and other support. But the effort risks slipping into the political mix of the presidential campaign, polarizing debate around a war that was once a bipartisan cause celebre in Washington.

About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believe the United States has a responsibility to help Ukraine, compared with a third of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, according to a July Pew Research Center poll.

Americans are also divided over which presidential candidate would do the best job handling the war. An August AP-NORC poll found that about a third of Americans said they trusted Harris more, while a similar share said the same about Trump.

On Thursday, Zelensky found some bipartisan support during his visit to the Capitol, where he was greeted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Zelensky had called for using long-range weapons, such as UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles or US-made ATACMS, to “get the maximum benefits in order to bring Putin to the table” and increase Ukraine’s negotiating position. .

“If we don’t make this fundamental choice this week, I think the outcome for Ukraine will be disastrous,” Graham said.

Administration officials have been skeptical of Zelensky’s request, saying the weapons could have limited benefits but increase the risk of conflict escalation. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said senators gave Zelensky advice on how to persuade Biden to ease restrictions.

Rep. Jim Himes, another Connecticut Democrat and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Zelensky wanted “more, faster.”

“He was politely frustrated,” Himes said, and specifically requested more Patriot missile defenses as Russia steps up strikes against Ukraine’s cities and energy grid ahead of winter.

Zelensky faces a much more tense situation with Trump. The latest round of sniping began on Sunday, when the New Yorker published an interview with Zelenskyy in which he criticized JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, calling him “too radical” to suggest that Ukraine should cede some territory for end the war. Zelensky also rejected Trump’s boasts that he could quickly negotiate a solution, saying “my feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even though he thinks he knows how.”

The same day, Zelensky visited a Pennsylvania factory producing munitions for war. He was joined by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a top Harris surrogate, and Republicans criticized the visit as a political stunt in a political battleground state.

House Speaker Mike Johnson demanded that Zelensky fire Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, alleging the tour was “designed to help Democrats and clearly constituted election interference.” The Louisiana Republican did not attend any of the lawmakers’ meetings with Zelensky on Thursday.

Trump complained this week that Zelenskyy is “making petty smears about your favorite president, me.” He also described the Ukrainian leader as “the biggest salesman in the world” for U.S. support, and lamented that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” for end the war. Trump’s message is consistent with Russian propaganda that claims kyiv’s intransigence – not Moscow’s aggression – has prolonged the bloodshed.

Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Zelensky was in a “no-win situation” where he “can’t even visit a U.S. arms manufacturer to say thank you without being informed.” attack. »

Trump was impeached during his first term for asking Zelenskyy to help him investigate Biden, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, at a time when the Ukrainian leader was seeking support from Washington. There are now fears that Trump could cut or add conditions to US military assistance if he returns to the White House.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump was not wrong in wanting a negotiated end to the war. However, he added, Trump risks harming Ukraine by allowing Putin to make more gains on the battlefield.

“Neither Ukraine nor Russia will win this war, and the sooner the sides try to end it, the better,” Kupchan said. “Where Trump deviates from course, and where Biden and Harris have a much stronger argument, is that we get there not by throwing Ukraine under the bus, but by giving them enough support that they can block any further Russian aggression. »

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Michelle Price in New York and Ellen Knickmeyer, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Steven Groves and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux in Washington contributed to this report.