Opinion
Kamala Harris meets with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, pledges unified motion if Russia invades: ‘A decisive second’
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Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich, and pledged united motion with allies throughout the globe if Russia had been to invade Ukraine — together with “extreme” financial sanctions.
“As , it is a decisive second in our world’s historical past and this is a crucial assembly for that and plenty of different causes,” Harris stated in a bilateral assembly with the Ukrainian chief.
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Feb 19, 2022: US Vice President Kamala Harris (R) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrive for images earlier than assembly collectively on the Munich Safety Convention (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany. (Photograph by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Her remarks come a day after President Biden stated that he’s “satisfied” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has determined to invade Ukraine, after a continued buildup of forces on the Ukrainian border.
Harris has been assembly with allies in Europe together with NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg, Latvian President Egils Levits, Lithuania President Gitanas Nauseda, and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, and has sought to current a united entrance within the face of aggression from Moscow. She additionally addressed the Munich Safety Convention.
On Saturday she reiterated that there could be “extreme” sanctions for Russia if it did invade.
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“The USA takes severely the significance of the integrity and the territorial integrity of Ukraine and your sovereignty, and america stands with Ukraine on this regard,” Harris stated. “If Russia additional invades your nation, as I discussed earlier right this moment, we’ll impose swift and extreme financial sanctions. We’ve got been clear about that.”
She stated that america would like a diplomatic decision, and that the trail stays open, but when Russia invades, “we’re ready to implement and to do this work in a unified means with our allies world wide.”
“Any threats to your nation, we take severely, and now we have rallied our allies and our companions to talk with one voice, and people voices have been mirrored all through the course of those final couple of days and earlier than,” she stated.
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Feb. 19, 2022: US Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pose for images earlier than a gathering on the Munich Safety Convention (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany (Photograph by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Biden stated on Friday that the U.S. believes Russia is partaking in a “false flag” operation as each Russia and Ukraine accuse one another of shelling within the nation’s east and that an invasion into Ukraine “will occur within the subsequent a number of days.”
“They haven’t moved their troops out. They’ve moved extra troops in,” Biden stated. “Each indication now we have is that they’re ready to enter Ukraine, assault Ukraine.”
Earlier this month, the Pentagon introduced that it had intelligence that Russia was prone to “fabricate” a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, which might falsely pin an assault on Ukrainian forces.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stated that sort of plan was “proper out of their playbook.”
U.S. officers imagine that Russia is planning to “stage a faux assault by Ukrainian navy or intelligence forces towards Russian sovereign territory or towards Russian-speaking folks to due to this fact justify their motion as a part of this faux assault,” Kirby defined on Feb. 3.
Fox Information’ Brooke Singman and The Related Press contributed to this report.
