Pence meets Zelensky in Ukraine, focusing on GOP divided over war
Former Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Thursday, a detour from the presidential campaign trail intended to highlight his continued support for the nation in the fight against Russia and to contrast it with the views of two key Republican Rivals: Donald Trump. J. Trump and Ron DeSantis.
Both Mr. Trump, the former president, and Mr. DeSantis, the governor of Florida, have criticized US involvement in the defense of Ukraine. The United States has provided more than $40 billion in military and humanitarian aid.
During his 12-hour stay, with an NBC News crew accompanying him, Mr. Pence met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and visited a mass cemetery, laying flowers at a memorial, according to an adviser.
For more than 16 months, Ukraine has been fighting to repel the Russian invasion in a war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers.
“Look, the war here in Ukraine is not our war, but freedom is our fight,” Mr. Pence said NBC news. He is the first Republican candidate to visit Ukraine during the 2024 campaign. President Biden was in Kiev in February.
In his nightly address to his nation, Mr. Zelensky thanked Mr. Pence for his support and said that US support for Ukraine was vital.
Mr. Pence added to NBC News: “I think we’re not just promoting the interests of liberty, but let me be clear, my other message is that we’re promoting our national interest.”
The show of solidarity from Mr. Pence, who was Mr. Trump’s vice president, stood in stark contrast to the GOP’s top ranking of presidential candidates.
At a CNN town hall in May, Trump, the Republican frontrunner, declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.
He also would not call Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin a war criminal, saying it would make it more difficult to end hostilities. Mr Trump did say that Mr Putin had “made a big mistake” by invading Ukraine.
Mr. DeSantis, a former member of the House of Representatives, has aligned himself more closely with Mr. Trump on US aid to Ukraine.
In a statement to Fox News in March before formally entering the race, Mr. DeSantis that protecting Ukraine’s borders was not a vital US interest and that policymakers should instead focus on their homeland. He was responding to a questionnaire from Tucker Carlson, the conservative commentator later fired by the network.
At that time, Mr. DeSantis criticized by some hawks in the GOP for describing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute”. In an attempt to clarify his remarks, he later called Putin a “war criminal” who “should be held accountable.”
Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman And James C. McKinley Jr. reporting contributed.