Foreign Affairs
State of the Union: The meeting occurred on the same day as Biden announced $8 million more in aid to Ukraine.
In a joint Thursday appearance with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at several potential Ukrainian concessions that have been floated as ways to end that conflict.
Zelensky was in Washington, DC after delivering a speech to the UN in New York, where he put forward his own “peace plan” including the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders.
Condemning the calls for a negotiated settlement, Harris commented,
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There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations. These proposals are the same as 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.
Harris’s comments can be read as a criticism of the peace plan of the former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH). Vance’s plan, which consists of a ceasefire, the creation of a demilitarized zone along current frontlines, and the scrapping of Ukrainian plans to join the EU or NATO, has been attacked by many on the left as a “surrender.”
In the joint appearance, Zelensky also brought up a “Victory Plan” that he had brought to the U.S. to show to not only Biden and Harris, but also Trump. While it is unclear whether Zelensky will meet with Trump this week, Trump shared a purported message from a Ukrainian deputy ambassador requesting a meeting between Zelensky and the former president.
