Trump says U.S. must ‘get out’ of Ukraine and will remain ‘stuck’ unless he wins election

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States needs to get out of the war in Ukraine and that U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and U.S. President Joe Biden had no plan to do so.

“Biden and Kamala got us into this war in Ukraine, and now they can’t get us out. They can’t get us out,” Trump said in a speech in Georgia.

The United States does not have troops in Ukraine but has given military and humanitarian assistance worth billions of dollars to Ukraine.

“I think that we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated, I’ll get out. We gotta get out. Biden says ‘we will not leave until we win.’ What happens if they win,” Trump said.

The U.S. election and Ukraine

Ukraine has faced 31 months of all-out war since Russia launched its wide-ranging invasion effort in February 2022. 

The U.S. has been a key backer of Ukraine’s fight, and the pending change of leadership in the White House could have an impact on the support it receives from Washington.

Trump is vying to return to the Oval Office, four years after he lost to Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This time around, he’s facing a new presidential rival: Harris, who became the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped his re-election bid in July.

Some analysts have predicted that a Harris administration would not substantially change the direction of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Trump’s comments on Monday followed others he made a day earlier, in which he claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “wants [the Democrats] to win” the U.S. election.