Republican presidential nominee Chris Christie has made a surprise trip to Ukraine and thrown himself behind Kiev’s bid to defeat Russia.
The ex-New Jersey governor met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of his first trip to the war-torn country since Moscow’s full-scale invasion last February.
He praised the former actor turned wartime leader for showing “the determination it takes to survive a war and ultimately win it.
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Christie also handed over handwritten lyrics to Jon Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and a note to present to the Ukrainian president.
Christie is the second GOP candidate to visit Kyiv following Mike Pence’s June trip
Christie visited Kiev and the nearby suburb of Bucha, where he advocated continued US support for the war-torn country.
He gave President Zelensky a handwritten copy of Bon Jovi’s lyrics to “It’s My Life” after talks with the Ukrainian leader
The rock singer is an old friend of Christie’s and he had presented the gift after the former governor initially asked for a signed album to be given to Zelensky.
Christie also visited cities devastated by the fighting, including the once Russian-occupied Bucha, a suburb of Kiev where Russia is accused of committing heinous war crimes.
He then laid flowers in the village of Moshchun, where fierce exchanges took place between the two sides in March 2022.
He is the second GOP presidential candidate to visit Ukraine following former Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the country in June.
Zelensky later posted a photo of him shaking hands with Christie on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“And it is very important that Mr. Christie started his visit to Ukraine with a visit to Bucha to see with his own eyes the threat to freedom and to everyone in the world posed by Russian aggression,” Zelensky said in the tweet.
“I thank all Americans, every one of them, for their indispensable support.”
Christie’s stance sets him apart from some other candidates, including Donald Trump, who has sharply criticized US support for the war.
The larger-than-life Republican branded his former ally a “puppet” of Vladimir Putin in May after a CNN town hall interview even featured Trump refusing to say who he wanted to win the war.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a distant second in polls, suggested this year that the war was simply a “territorial dispute” before backtracking and labeling Putin a war criminal.
Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramasawmy, who has risen to a 10% approval rating in some Republican polls, has also proposed a peace deal with Russia.
Just over $43 billion has been spent by the US on military aid for Ukraine, even though Congress has allocated a whopping $113 billion to help Kyiv drive out the Russian invaders.
But support for Ukraine is increasingly contentious within the Republican Party, with its non-interventionist wing arguing that the money is better spent at home fighting inflation or tackling illegal immigration.
GOP presidential frontrunner Trump has even suggested he will try to condition continued military aid to Kiev on an investigation into First Son Hunter Biden’s business dealings there.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who hoped to steer Donald Trump to the GOP nomination, caused a stir earlier this year when he called the Russian invasion a “territorial dispute.”
Donald Trump, who arrives here Thursday for his federal conspiracy charge, claims he would make aid to Ukraine conditional on Kiev investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
He claims he can end the war within 24 hours if he is re-elected next November and boasts of his good relations with Zelensky and “even better” relations with Putin.
Speaking to the Washington Post ahead of his visit, Christie attacked his GOP rivals for using the war in Ukraine as political football.
“We have people in the party like Trump and Ron DeSantis, Vivek, giving people a false choice, which is, ‘Well, there’s only one thing we can do; we can improve things in the United States or we can help Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying.
“When you look at the amount of money we’ve sent to Ukraine as a percentage of the federal budget, anyone who can do the math knows that’s a ridiculous statement.”
A Marquette Law School poll released last month found that 51 percent of Republicans said the United States was giving Ukraine “too much,” 32 percent said it was “about right,” and 17 percent said it was ‘not enough’.
A separate survey for Quinnipiac University in June found that 66 percent of Americans said aid to Ukraine was in the national interest of the United States, while 28 percent said it was not.
Christie’s visit came as Ukraine appeared to claim responsibility for a drone attack on a Russian naval vessel in the Black Sea.
The attack reportedly took place near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports.
Senior presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak suggested on social media that Ukraine carried out the strike.
Drones change the rules of the game, return the waters to full foreign jurisdiction and ultimately destroy the value of the Russian fleet. In effect, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea,” he wrote.
“Therefore, the presence of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea will come to an end, and with it the traditional blackmail of Moscow. Ukraine provides freedom and security in the Black Sea for world trade.’
Russia recently pulled out of a UN-brokered deal to allow Ukraine to continue exporting grain from its ports, then quickly targeted Odessa’s southern export hub.
This weekend, on Saturday, Saudi Arabia will launch an initiative to reach a political agreement to end the war, but Moscow will not be there.
National security advisers and representatives from a number of countries will meet in the coastal city of Jeddah, the state-run Saudi news agency reported, in the kingdom’s first official confirmation of the meeting.
“Organizing this meeting marks a continuation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s humanitarian initiatives and efforts and his communications with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine since the early days of the crisis,” SPA added.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. Last year, Riyadh said it helped release prisoners of war.
The oil-rich kingdom and its Gulf neighbor have so far resisted Western pressure to cut ties with Russia since Moscow launched its war of aggression against Ukraine more than 17 months ago.