Former President Donald Trump’s statements about Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine during Thursday’s presidential debate were “worrying,” Ukrainian politician Oleksiy Goncharenko said Saturday.
“Definitely what Mr. Trump is saying, some of his quotes are very concerning to us,” the Ukrainian member of Parliament said in an interview to CNN.
“But I would say it’s not the same what he says and what he will do,” he added.
“We are very concerned because we more or less understand what this means for Ukraine, (a) Biden presidency, and we really don’t know what it means for Ukraine, a Trump presidency. It could be very good, it could be very bad. We simply don’t know. And that is definitely worrying,” Goncharenko said.
He added that it was unclear what Trump meant when he said he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly stated that if he were president, Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine.
“If Mr. Trump wants to say that if he becomes president he will make Putin leave Ukraine, only applause from me. If he wants to say that if he wins the election he will abandon Ukraine and that Putin can take Ukraine, then I just want to tell him that this will be the worst, not only for Ukraine but for the security of the United States, because it will mean that the United States lost the war, lost a lot of money in weapons that was sent, lost its position as world leader,” he said.
Goncharenko said that regardless of the outcome of the election, it was important for the US public to understand that supporting Ukraine was in their national strategic interest, as money and weapons supplied to the front lines were being used “ against the Russian Federation, which openly calls the United States its greatest enemy, and they are one of the United States’ greatest rivals.”
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