Kamala Harris has hit out at opponents making “proposals for surrender” in Ukraine – making a thinly veiled criticism of Donald Trump.
The US vice president and Democratic candidate for president said some want Ukraine to strike peace with Russia by accepting neutrality and foregoing security relationships with other nations during a news conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Ukraine has stood up to Russia’s aggression and today Kyiv stands free and strong. President Zelenskyy, I am clear,” she said.
“Putin started this war and he could end it tomorrow if he simply withdrew his troops from Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”
Hinting at Mr Trump’s recent comments saying Ukraine should have taken “a bad deal,” Ms Harris added: “They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender.
“The US can not and should not isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Isolation is not insulation.”
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:36
Putin ‘could end war tomorrow’
Mr Trump has said he will meet with Mr Zelenskyy on Friday in a post on Truth Social.
It comes a day after the former president suggested Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the months before the war started.
Advertisement
At a campaign rally in North Carolina, Mr Trump said: “The worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now. If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better.
“They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built, and every tower would be ageing for another 2,000 years.”
“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” he added. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”
Mr Trump has also previously claimed he would end the war in Ukraine the same day he retakes office – but has also condemned Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy calls for more air defence
Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defences need to be “urgently strengthened” to “save thousands of lives and reduce Russian terror to zero”.
“We have to end this war, we need a just peace. We must protect our people: Ukrainian families, Ukrainian children and everyone from Putin’s evil,” he said at the White House.
His appearance came after a meeting with Joe Biden, where the US president announced a “surge” in military support for Ukraine.
The new package includes long-desired glide bombs, air defence kit, and more training for Ukrainian pilots, but it did not come with permission to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia.
Recent weeks have seen Mr Zelenskyy pushing the US and other Western allies for permission to use longer-range missile systems to strike deeper into Russia.
So far the Pentagon and White House have not green-lit the loosening of restrictions. There has been hesitation amid concerns over an escalation, which Russia has warned of.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
With 40 days to go until the election, next for Ms Harris is a visit to a border entry facility in Douglas, Arizona.
Sky’s partner network NBC News reported she will receive “official briefings on operations and progress on disrupting the flow of fentanyl through the southern border,” according to an official from her office.
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
More on Barack Obama
Related Topics:
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obamaat Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pairsat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.