Rep. Victoria Spartz, the only Ukrainian-born member of Congress, has argued that former president Donald Trump is the best candidate for American foreign allies – especially Ukraine.
Despite being one of the few members of the American Congress who has been to Ukraine, Spartz has voted against recent humanitarian and military aid packages along party lines. She claimed that “peace can only be achieved through strength” and that Trump is “the toughest in actions” during an ABC interview on Thursday.
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She argued that former president Barack Obama did nothing for Ukraine, while Trump acted, and that Zelensky made a lot of mistakes in his leadership during the war. She has specifically targeted Andriy Yermak, the Head of Ukraine’s Office of the President, for poor management.
“Trump was the first one who actually gave lethal aid,” she claimed. “Also, President Zelensky needed to do a better job preparing himself and preparing his own country and he did a terrible job too.”
The congresswoman has faced heated scrutiny from many of her compatriots for her stance, which many believe to be anti-Ukraine. Some have accused Spartz of betraying her country in exchange for more political power in the conservative party. She has denied these claims.
“We cannot have this never-ending war, they cost a lot of money and a lot of lives,” she said. “We have to have strong leaders. Whether you like it or not, President Trump has the ability to strike.”
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Spartz is up for re-election next week alongside hundreds of her colleagues. Although she initially told voters she would not seek another term in office last year, she changed her position earlier this year and decided to run. She is now considered a front-runner in Indiana’s 5th congressional district.
Americans have just a few days left to cast their ballots in Election 2024. Other MAGA voters have echoed Spartz’s opinions about Trump, claiming that he is the only candidate who can avoid entangling the US further in foreign conflicts.
Although the former president has said again and again that he would be willing to withdraw aid if Kyiv did not consider giving up occupied land in exchange for a peace deal, several Trump voters who spoke with Kyiv Post at a Trump rally in Georgia last week said they did not believe that Trump would allow any part of Ukraine to be permanently annexed by Russia. Many said that they saw Trump as the only option to end the war and prevent WWIII.
“Trump is for the military,” Cameron claimed. “I don’t want a war to happen, especially under this administration when he doesn’t even care about our soldiers.”
“I travel a lot – I don’t want the US to turn into a Third World country… We need to get leadership in,” Leonard, a 26-year-old Black man from Atlanta, told Kyiv Post.
When asked about Trump and Putin’s relationship, in which Trump has said he highly respects the dictator, many voters said they believed the former president was in a better position to manage his Russian rival than Harris. They believe that Trump will end the war in Ukraine’s favor.
“Putin… seems to respect Trump,” Leonard said. “So, if he gets on the line and tells Putin we must resolve this and get it ended, I am sure that’ll happen. He talks about that a lot.”
Leonard said he did not believe that Trump would force Ukraine to give up large swaths of territory to negotiate any deal with Putin. “I haven’t heard that,” he said. “I don’t think he would.”
Harris voters begged to differ at a competing rally outside Atlanta last week, where they argued to Kyiv Post that Harris was the obvious top pick for America and its foreign allies.
“I think we should be in Ukraine, if not with boots on the ground, at least with financial and military support,” another rallygoer named Derek, 46, told Kyiv Post. “We have to respect countries’ sovereignty – Ukraine was a sovereign country that was invaded. We can’t go back to those times when those sorts of things were okay.”
“I feel like we are at an inflection point in this country with people that only care about themselves and people that are able to see the problems of others and empathize with others.” Derek said. “I’m definitely in the latter, so that’s why I’m here today, and I think that’s what Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party represent.
“I have differences with the Democratic Party, but they don’t matter today – we’ll take that fight up later after we save democracy and we make sure this country doesn’t turn into a dictatorship,” he added.
The news comes after the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced on Thursday that over 20,000 artillery Russian artillery systems have been destroyed in Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022. The Kremlin has seen 20,013 pieces of artillery liquidated, with 58 systems destroyed over the last week.
The loss of tens of thousands of pieces of heavy weapons is unprecedented in the modern era.
“Artillery is very important, as we have seen throughout the war,” Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher with the War Studies department at King’s College London, told Newsweek. Artillery is crucial in many areas of the front line, making these systems critical to offensive operations on both sides.
Ukraine has reportedly been firing a fifth of the artillery shells they need to effectively push back Russian lines due to ammunition shortages across the vast front line.
The UAF update also said that there have been 694,950 Russian casualties throughout this time along with the loss of almost 10,000 tanks, 20,000 armored vehicles, and several thousand UAV drones.
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