Former U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris appear on screen during a debate watch party at the Cameo Art House Theater in Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris entered Tuesday’s debate looking for the same goal, a moment that would give them an edge in a race that polls show is essentially tied. Photographer: Allison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Allison Joyce | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris clashed repeatedly over Russia, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine during Tuesday night’s closely watched presidential debate.
Harris told Trump, who previously served as US president, that Putin “would eat him for lunch” and said that, if the Republican became president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”
She also accused Trump of being ready to abandon Ukraine after two and a half years of war and massive US military funding efforts.
“Understanding why our European allies and our NATO allies are so grateful that he’s no longer president and understanding the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO,” Harris said during the ABC News debate. according to the minutes of the debate.
“What we did was protect the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv and looking at the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland,” she said, before describing Putin as “a dictator who will eat you for lunch”.
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, debates for the first time with Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign at the National Constitution Center on September 10, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Win Mcnamee | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Trump dismissed Harris’ comments, claiming that the war would not have started if he were in power in 2022 and telling the audience that Putin “would be sitting in Moscow, and he would not have lost 300,000 men and women” in the war.
The exact number of casualties in the war remains unknown. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has released such sensitive information, but US intelligence estimated last year that about 315,000 Russian soldiers — the vast majority of them men — was killed or wounded in war until then.
Trump has repeatedly hinted that he could cut military funding to Ukraine and would seek an immediate end to the conflict, while officials in Kyiv fear that the policy would mean they would have to cede occupied territory to Russia as part of a deal.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference following their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
Chris McGrath | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Trump was asked multiple times Tuesday night whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war or whether it was in the best interests of the United States for Kyiv to win. He responded by asserting that he wanted the war to stop to save lives and that he would seek to negotiate a deal with Russia. He has previously said he would end the war within 24 hours if he were president, without specifying how he would do so.
On Tuesday, he again did not specify how the deal would be reached, or whether it would involve Ukraine ceding occupied territory to Russia — a concession Kyiv has previously refused to make.
“I think it’s in the best interest of the United States to end this war and get it over with. Okay. Let’s negotiate a deal. Because we have to stop all these human lives from being destroyed,” he said during the ABC News presidential debate, according to a record.
“I want to stop the war. I want to save the lives that are being needlessly killed… millions of people. Millions of people. It’s much worse than the numbers that you’re getting, which are fake numbers,” Trump said, without providing evidence or further details.
Harris said she believes “the reason Donald Trump says this war will be over in 24 hours is because he’s going to give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans.”
Presidential candidates clashed over military funding for Ukraine, a hot-button issue between Democrats and Republicans. led to months of deadlock over a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine that was finally agreed upon in the spring..
To date, the United States has provided more than $55.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine, The US State Department said in a statement last weeksince Russia launched what Washington described as a “full-scale, deliberate, unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine” in February 2022.
Harris said Tuesday that military funding from the United States and Ukraine’s international allies had helped the country resist Russia’s invasion, declaring that “thanks to our support, thanks to the air defense systems, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins, the Abrams tanks that we provided, Ukraine remains a free and independent country.”
People look at a U.S. M12A1 Abrams tank captured by Russian troops in Ukraine, displayed at the World War II memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill west of Moscow, on May 1, 2024.
Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty Images
On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his stated position that the United States should not pay more than its European partners to support Ukraine, nor should it pay more to the NATO alliance, because Europe “benefits much more from doing this than we do.”
“Surname [Europe] should be balanced. With that said, I want to settle the fight. I know [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy is very good, and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. [with them]”, Trump said.
On Wednesday morning, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the debate between Trump and Harris as a spectacular spectacle.
“Honestly, I don’t know why you think it’s big news,” the official told Sputnik Radio when asked to comment on the debate. according to Russian state news agency Tass.
“Is it big news that we are witnessing yet another show run by people who clearly take no responsibility for their words?” she asked rhetorically.
Ukraine has not commented publicly on the Harris-Trump debate and has been careful to avoid taking sides ahead of the election, for fear of alienating both the political establishment and the future president.
