U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with and held a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference today. Neither mentioned the disastrous retreat out of Avdeyevka, perhaps Ukraine’s most reinforced military location in the conflict, and the site for shelling the civilians of nearby Donetsk city over the last ten years. Rather, Harris kept on point, explaining that democratic values were at stake vs. the ruthless autocracy of Putin’s Russia.
She explained that “international rules and norms” are on the line, and yielding to Putin will only feed his “imperialist” drive to conquer more land. She asserted that “what we’ve learned” over the last 24 hours about “the killing” of Alexei Navalny only underlines how “fundamentally hostile” Putin is to democratic principles. She apparently took it as received wisdom that Navalny was murdered and that Putin was implicated, with no need to offer any explanation as to what she supposedly had learned.
Zelenskyy told Harris in the press conference, quoted also in Ukrainska Prava: “Of course, the key issue for us now is the preservation of principle American support. Ukraine and all our warriors need and await of the respective positive vote regarding the assistance package. And I thank to everybody who understands how much depends on this single voting procedure.”
Ukrainska Pravda went on to assure its audience with Harris’s promises: “President Biden and I will continue to work to provide you with the weapons and resources you need to succeed. We will continue supporting your efforts to achieve a just and sustainable peace. We will work to ensure that Russia pays for the damage caused to Ukraine. We want Ukraine to emerge from this war as a free, democratic and independent state…. We will be with you as long as necessary.”
“President Biden and I will continue to work to secure the resources and weapons that you need to succeed. We also will continue to support your efforts to secure a just and lasting peace. We will work to make sure Russia pays damages to Ukraine. And ultimately, we want to see Ukraine emerge from this war as a nation that is free, democratic, and independent.
“President Zelenskyy, as President Joe Biden and I have made clear, we will be with you for as long as it takes,” she concluded their press conference.
