Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who’s operating for the Republican presidential nomination, made an unannounced go to to Ukraine on Friday to fulfill with President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he praised for demonstrating “the resolve it takes to outlive a warfare and finally win it.”
Mr. Christie is the second 2024 G.O.P. hopeful to go to Mr. Zelensky in Kyiv, signaling his help for Ukraine in a warfare that has divided the Republican candidates and Republican voters. Former Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Ukraine in June.
Escorted by a Ukrainian safety element, Mr. Christie visited websites close to Kyiv that had been devastated throughout Russia’s drive towards the Ukrainian capital within the first months of the invasion, together with Bucha, a Kyiv suburb the place Russian troopers massacred greater than 400 individuals final April.
“There are a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of individuals in our nation who help you,” Mr. Christie instructed native officers in Moshchun, a village northwest of Kyiv, throughout a go to to a memorial overlooking a trench utilized by Ukrainian troopers throughout a battle in March of final yr.
The USA has offered Ukraine with billions of {dollars} in navy and safety help since Russia’s invasion greater than a yr in the past, with President Biden usually framing the extraordinary degree of help as a part of an existential combat for democracy towards authoritarian aggression in addition to being very important to nationwide safety pursuits.
A majority of Individuals proceed to approve of U.S. assist to Ukraine within the battle, however that help has softened over time, owing principally to rising Republican opposition. The proportion of Republicans saying the US is offering “an excessive amount of” help to Ukraine has grown to 44 % from 9 % because the Russian invasion in February 2022, in response to polling by the Pew Analysis Heart.
That shift has been led by former President Donald Trump, whose first impeachment resulted from his 2019 telephone name to Mr. Zelensky pressuring him to analyze Mr. Trump’s political rivals after freezing a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in assist to Ukraine. Mr. Trump, who maintained that he didn’t strain Mr. Zelensky, has mentioned defending Ukraine is just not an important nationwide curiosity for the US.
In a CNN city corridor in Could, he refused to say whether or not he would proceed President Biden’s coverage of supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine if he returned to the White Home, or whether or not he supported Mr. Zelensky or Russian President Vladimir Putin within the battle.
“I need all people to cease dying,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Mr. Christie mentioned that in his assembly with Mr. Zelensky, which was closed to reporters, the Ukrainian president “spoke about his want for there to be bipartisan help for Ukraine.” He mentioned the topic of Mr. Trump didn’t come up.
“There was no dialog from him in regards to the race that I’m in,” Mr. Christie mentioned. He mentioned Mr. Zelensky instructed him, “Whoever the following president is, I have to have that particular person really feel a partnership with Ukraine.”
Ukraine coverage is an space through which Mr. Christie, a 2016 Trump rival-turned Trump adviser-turned Trump critic, has sought to attract a pointy distinction between himself and the previous president, calling Mr. Trump a “puppet of Putin” and mocking his latest declare that he may negotiate “in someday” a truce between Mr. Zelensky and the Russian chief.
“Transfer over Churchill, Trump is right here to avoid wasting the day,” Mr. Christie tweeted final month.
“I believe he actually likes strongmen,” Mr. Christie mentioned late Thursday of Mr. Trump in an interview aboard a practice to Kyiv. “I believe these are his position fashions by way of the best way he wish to management energy if left to his personal units.”
Mr. Christie additionally criticized the Biden administration for not doing extra to help the Ukrainian warfare effort, specifically its delays in supplying Mr. Zelensky’s authorities with F-16 fighter jets, which Mr. Biden had resisted doing for a yr earlier than approving the transfer in Could. “I might have been sending them months in the past,” Mr. Christie mentioned. He additionally favors NATO membership for Ukraine.
A New York Occasions/Siena ballot this week confirmed Mr. Christie trailing far behind Mr. Trump, who stays the overwhelming favourite within the race, with the help of 54 % of seemingly Republican major voters.
“I want you political luck,” Anatolii Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, instructed Mr. Christie throughout his go to to town.
“All of us hope for that, proper?” Mr. Christie replied, clapping him on the again.
