SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis don’t understand the broader implications of their call for limited military assistance to Ukraine, former Vice President Mike Pence told The Associated Press on Wednesday in Iowa.
“With all due respect, I think the former president and the governor of Florida simply don’t understand the national interest of Americans in supporting the Ukrainian military to repel the Russian military in Ukraine,” Pence said. , who is competing with Trump and DeSantis for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said during the interview before a campaign event in Sioux City.
Pence, who visited Ukraine last week, said: “Make no mistake, China is watching.”
Pence, who has called for robust aid to the Ukrainian military, said the U.S. commitment to keeping Russia in check indicates its willingness to also check China’s military ambitions in Asia.
Trump has said that opposing Russia in its invasion of Ukraine is not a vital US national strategic interest. DeSantis has said that “getting further bogged down in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of America’s” vital national interests.
Pence, reflecting the consensus of Republican presidential candidates, does not support US troops on the ground in Ukraine.
But the percentage of Americans who say the US is providing too much military aid to Ukraine has grown steadily, led by Republicans, since the war began in 2022, according to a Pew Research Center poll released last month.
According to the poll, 44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the U.S. was providing too much military aid to Ukraine, compared with 40 percent and the highest mark since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Describing his trip to Ukrainian villages attacked early in the war, Pence described what he said was a mass grave that included the bodies of “over 500 unarmed civilians who were gunned down in the streets.” Men, women and children”.
“I think we have to stand firm, stand strong,” Pence said in the interview. “I will, while others may be giving way to a more populist sentiment.”
Pence spent his time in and around Kiev, away from the eastern front line where Ukrainian forces in recent weeks have been probing weak points in Russian defenses.
But Pence said now is exactly the time to provide tanks and other equipment as the Ukrainians embark on a counteroffensive that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as aimed at liberating Russian-held areas.
“I mean, we’re in the middle of fighting season. The Ukrainians are moving forward,” Pence said. “I really think we should pay attention to the first half of the 20th century.”
“If we don’t separate, if we don’t give the Ukrainian military what they need to defeat and repel the Russian invasion, I am convinced that the second half of the 21st century will look a lot more like the first half of the 20th century” .
