Time reports on "uneasy" relations between Kamala Harris and Zelenskyy
US Vice President Kamala Harris turned down Ukraine’s suggestion of preemptive sanctions against Moscow in February 2022, days before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source: European Pravda with reference to an article in Time by Simon Shuster
Details: Shuster describes a meeting between Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in 2022. Both agreed that a Russian invasion would very likely happen soon.
Zelenskyy urged the US to impose preemptive sanctions against Russia, arguing that this would force Russian ruler Vladimir Putin to reconsider his decision to invade Ukraine, and to supply Ukraine with all the weapons it would need, including anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets and artillery.
According to the Ukrainian officials present at the meeting, Harris turned both suggestions down.
A Time source in the White House explained that the US considered the mere threat of sanctions a more effective deterrent than their imposition, and that arming Ukraine might have strengthened Putin’s belief that Ukraine was a "client state of NATO".
"Vice President Harris has been a strong proponent of enduring US support for Ukraine and has repeatedly expressed an unwavering commitment to support the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal aggression," the source added.
Time suggests in the article that the 2022 meeting "set the tone for a relationship" between Zelenskyy and Harris "that has never been particularly warm" (though it does not explain why).
It is noted that Harris has never visited Ukraine, even after the start of the full-scale invasion, though she has met with Zelenskyy six times. Their latest meeting was on the sidelines of the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland in June.
"At her meetings with Ukrainian officials in recent years, she did show sympathy for their plight, one of them said, ‘but I would call it formal sympathy, following protocol’," Shuster writes.
Background: Kamala Harris is now the Democratic presidential candidate and has a chance of winning the election, beating Donald Trump.
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