Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said on Wednesday that Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy president should be thankful to the American taxpayers for funding the war-torn country’s defence against Russian invasion.
“I don’t appreciate Zelenskyy coming to this country and telling the American taxpayers what to do. He ought to say thank you to the American taxpayers!” he said
When asked how Trump-Vance administration would end war in Ukraine, he said, “The details of how the Donald Trump-administration is going to end the war in Ukraine is by not being weak and not being dumb which is unfortunately something you can’t say for the current administration.”
“Russia didn’t invade any of its neighbours for the four years when Donald Trump was president.And the president before him and the president after him, somehow, Russia keeps on invading. It’s because they don’t respect American leadership because our leaders aren’t smart,” he added.
The comments come as Zelenskyy is set to present his “victory plan” to the Biden administration in the White House.
The US has allocated over $175 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine during the conflict, despite ongoing resistance from Republicans.
The Biden administration announced an additional $375 million in support earlier this week.
However, Zelenskyy has been pressing the US for authorization to use long-range missiles against Russian territory—a request that Biden has thus far denied.