Trump was asked if he wanted Ukraine to win its war. He dodged the question.

Donald Trump twice sidestepped the question of whether he wants to see Ukraine win the war against Russia, instead simply saying he wants the war to end.
“I want the war to stop. I want to save lives,” Trump said in the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Instead, Trump vowed, as he has before, to solve the war before taking office by negotiating with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked again whether it was in the best interests of the U.S. for Ukraine to win the war, Trump said it was in the country’s interest “to get this war finished. “What I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other. I’ll get them together,” Trump said, adding that the conflict “would have never happened” if he had been president.

The exchange between Trump, a longtime critic of aid to Kyiv, and Harris on Russia’s nearly three-year long invasion highlights the difference between the two candidates on Europe and Russia.

Trump also reiterated a false claim that Harris was dispatched to negotiate with Putin and avert a war between Russia and Ukraine. Harris, who went to the Munich Security Conference in the days ahead of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, met with Zelenskyy. She has never met with Putin.