ANDThe appointment of Senator JD Vance as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate must have brought on cold sweats in kyiv because of his firm opposition to providing further aid to Ukraine.
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“I have to be honest with you, I really don’t care what happens to Ukraine one way or another as a country,” the Ohio senator said on a podcast in April.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we’re focusing on this border with Ukraine,” he added, at a time when many Republicans have called for more resources to be allocated to combating illegal immigration at the border with Mexico.
This Ohio politician, former military man and author of a best-selling book, defends in Congress the favorite causes of the former Republican president, such as the fight against immigration and economic protectionism under the credo of “America First.”
In particular, he distinguished himself by being one of the staunchest opponents of a new $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine.
Although it was eventually passed, it remained blocked in Congress for months due to opposition from “Trumpist” congressmen, including JD Vance, supported behind the scenes by Donald Trump. They maintained that they refuse to continue signing “blank checks” to Ukraine for an endless war.
Without fear
A possible Trump victory in the presidential elections on November 5 already worried the European Union and several European countries, as it would raise great uncertainties about the continued US financial and military support for Ukraine, which was at war after being invaded by Russia in February 2022.
Although he remains vague about what he would do, the Republican candidate has hinted that he would end the war very quickly if he returned to the White House. For kyiv, this increases the risk of being forced to negotiate with Moscow from an unfavourable position.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was not afraid of another Trump term. “I believe that if Donald Trump becomes president, we will work together. I am not afraid,” he said on Monday.
Zelensky met with Republican lawmakers on the sidelines of last week’s NATO summit in Washington.
The shadow of Trump, who has in the past called the Atlantic Alliance an “obsolete” organization, loomed over the summit marking the 75th anniversary of the Western military alliance.
Asked Tuesday about the implications of a Trump presidency for Ukraine, U.S. diplomatic spokesman Matthew Miller declined to answer. But he said: “What we see when it comes to Ukraine is that the American people strongly support continued support” for that country.
At the end of June, a few days before the NATO summit, Senator JD Vance attacked on Fox News the dependence of Europeans on the “American welfare state”, one of Trump’s favorite topics.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance said that “the United States needs to focus more on East Asia,” meaning China. “Wars are not won with GDP, the euro or the dollar. Wars are won with weapons, and the West does not make enough weapons,” he said.
He doesn’t understand it, of course, thank God he doesn’t have war on his territory.
In your opinion, the Russian president Vladimir Putin does not represent “an existential threat to Europe” And if so, this would suggest that Europe should play a more aggressive role in its own security.”
Asked by CNN about Vance’s claim, Zelensky said the senator did not understand what was actually happening in Ukraine. “To understand this, you have to come to the front line and see what is happening… Of course, he doesn’t understand it, thank God that there is no war on his territory,” said the Ukrainian president.
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