Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesperson Dmitry Peskov complained Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had referred too often to the Russian autocrat during their first head-to-head debate as candidates in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
"The name Putin is used, let's say, as one of the tools in the domestic political struggle of the United States," Peskov told reporters in Moscow, adding: "We really, really don't like this and we still hope they will leave our president alone."
He struck a seemingly neutral tone on the American political duel despite his boss recently offering a very tongue-in-cheek endorsement of Harris, saying the position was "quite clear: The U.S. as a whole, no matter which party the candidates are from, maintains a negative attitude, an unfriendly attitude towards our country."
Trump, however, has for years made comments admiring Putin, including calling his tactics in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine "genius" and "very savvy." The former U.S. leader has expressed no such warmth for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a "salesman" for his appeals to allies for weapons.
The Biden administration, along with its European allies and Zelenskyy himself, say a victory in Ukraine would embolden Putin to move against other Western-allied democracies in Europe. President Biden and his top officials were key players in rallying international support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia since even before Russian forces rolled into Ukraine. The U.S. spurred allies into action by pointing to declassified intelligence showing Russian preparations for the invasion.
Trump won't say if he wants Ukraine to win war with Russia
Trump spoke heatedly in Tuesday night's presidential debate about wanting Russia's war in Ukraine to be over — but twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine, which has received immense financial and military support from the U.S. and its NATO allies, to win.
It's "a very simple question. Do you want Ukraine to win this war?" moderator David Muir of ABC News asked Trump in Tuesday night's debate.
"I want the war to stop," Trump responded. "I want to save lives."
Asked to clarify whether he believed it was in the best interest of the United States for Ukraine to win the war with Russia, Trump responded: "I think it's the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done."
Ukraine is dependent on U.S. aid to keep up its fight against Russian forces, and it would have grave difficulty withstanding their attacks if Washington were to pull its support.
Trump also falsely claimed Tuesday that the war had killed "millions" of people since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, while the United Nations says 11,700 civilian deaths have been verified. Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian governments provide full casualty tallies for their military forces.
His comments are likely to heighten concern among Ukraine and its supporters that his return to the White House could put Kyiv under pressure to sign a peace deal with its stronger neighbor that would force it to give up land seized by Putin's forces — something Zelenskyy has firmly rejected so far.
Harris tells Trump Putin is a "dictator who would eat you for lunch"
Trump has claimed repeatedly that he would get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if he is elected, although he has never said how he'd accomplish the feat, beyond getting Putin and Zelenskyy together to talk. The fear of Ukraine's supporters is that the kind of deal Trump is talking about would amount to the country's democratic government capitulating significant territory and sovereignty to Russia.
Putin earlier this year insisted that Ukraine give up vast amounts of its eastern Donbas region, much of which is already occupied by Russian forces, and shun NATO membership as preconditions to even starting negotiations. The NATO alliance's members, including the U.S., said bluntly in a joint statement in July that Ukraine was on an "irreversible path" to membership.
"The reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up," Harris said during the debate. She accused Trump of being in "what you think is a friendship with ... a dictator who would eat you for lunch."
Just days before the invasion in 2022, Mr. Biden sent Harris to the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, a high-profile mission to consolidate support for Ukraine among European and NATO leaders. Harris met on the sidelines with Zelenskyy.
Trump, during the debate, linked the timing of Harris' trip to Europe to Putin's sending troops into Ukraine days later.
"They sent her in to negotiate with Zelenskyy and Putin. And she did. And the war started three days later," he said.
But the U.S. government said the Russian troops massing on Ukraine's border and intelligence assessments already pointed to an imminent invasion. Putin was not at the security conference in Germany, and Harris didn't meet with him.
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