GOP presidential hopeful Chris Christie says ‘inhumanity’ of warfare is palpable throughout go to to Ukraine

BUCHA, Ukraine — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has change into the second 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to go to Ukraine, assembly Friday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, touring ravaged villages and saying what he noticed additional impressed to him that the U.S. ought to proceed to assist the nation fend off Russia’s assault.

“I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity,” Christie stated throughout his journey, which included stops within the villages of Bucha and Moshchun, each on the outskirts of Kyiv. “And you look at this, and I don’t think there’s anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent.”

During the go to, Christie positioned flowers on the memorial advanced in Bucha, the place there was a mass grave of civilians, and prayed for Ukrainian volunteers who had been killed by Russian troops initially of the warfare in Moshchun.

“I really suspected that if I saw this in person that it would arm me to be a better advocate for support, I think, from the stuff I saw today just now, and the meeting with the president … I think I’m much better off,” Christie stated after his assembly with Zelenskyy.

Christie stated the Ukrainian president spoke about his need for there to be bipartisan assist for Ukraine, however made no feedback on the U.S. presidential race.

“He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that he’s advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done,” Christie stated. ”There was no dialog in any respect from him about, , the race that I’m in.”

The GOP presidential subject is split over the way forward for U.S. involvement within the warfare.

Christie has leveled criticism over Ukraine at President Joe Biden, whose administration has offered greater than $43 billion in army assist to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Friday, he stated that “America needs to stand up to prevent and to work with friends like the Ukrainians to give them the means necessary for them to be able to secure once again their liberty and their freedom.”

During a July city corridor in Columbia, South Carolina, Christie referred to as the battle “a proxy war between the United States and China,” arguing that Ukrainians “don’t want American men and women on the ground in Ukraine, nor would I send American men and women on the ground in Ukraine. What they want is the hardware to have a fair chance to beat the Russians.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence have each additionally warned that the failure to stem Russia’s advances might result in additional world battle, probably signaling to China that it may very well be profitable in shifting to overhaul Taiwan.

Last month, the U.S. introduced $345 million in army assist for Taiwan, in what’s the Biden administration’s first main bundle drawing on America’s personal stockpiles to assist Taiwan counter China and to discourage China from contemplating attacking, by offering Taipei sufficient weaponry that it might make the value of invasion too excessive.

Pence made a visit to Ukraine in June after launching his personal presidential bid.

Former President Donald Trump, the present GOP front-runner, has referred to as on congressional Republicans to halt all army assist for Ukraine till the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden’s enterprise dealings. Trump has additionally argued that he might cease the warfare swiftly after returning to the White House.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who drew criticism in March from quite a few fellow Republicans who expressed concern about his dismissive description of the battle as a “territorial dispute,” subsequently strolling it again – has endorsed a cease-fire and argued that the U.S. shouldn’t get extra concerned within the warfare.

In an interview with The Washington Post aboard a prepare from Poland to Kyiv, Christie stated he hoped Republican voters had begun to rethink which of their celebration’s candidates could have the bandwidth to grapple “with the really complicated issues that the next president will have to deal with” – together with Ukraine – “and who is going to be dealing with trying to keep themselves out of jail.”

Christie additionally instructed the Post that a few of his fellow GOP contenders, together with Trump, DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy “are giving people a false choice, which is ‘Well, we can only do one thing; we can either improve things in the States or we can help Ukraine,’” calling that “a ridiculous statement.”

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