Pence show of support for Zelensky

Former Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Ukraine Thursday, becoming the first declared 2024 Republican presidential candidate to meet with the war-torn nation’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Pence, 64, made the trip with Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian humanitarian organization that the former VP previously accompanied to Poland and Ukraine, a Pence adviser said.

“This is bigger than politics,” Pence told NBC News.

“I really do believe that if Vladimir Putin and the Russian military were to overrun Ukraine, it wouldn’t be too long before they cross the border where our men and women would be required to fight.”

Pence (right with Zelensky) has been among the most outspoken GOPers in support of Kyiv’s effort to fight off the ongoing 16-monthold Russian invasion, even as other prominent Republicans have publicly questioned the price tag of ongoing US military aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky tweeted that he and Pence “discussed our defense, interaction between our nations, security cooperation, and importance of partners’ determination and certainty regarding Ukraine’s future membership in NATO.”

Pence also was briefed on human rights violations committed by Russian forces, including the abduction of Ukrainian children. He was given a tour of the sites of Russian atrocities in the Kyiv suburbs of Moshchun, Bucha and Irpin and laid flowers near the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen at historic St. Michael’s Cathedral.

“I believe America’s the leader of the free world,” Pence told NBC News. “But coming here just as a private citizen . . . just steels my resolve to do my part, to continue to call for strong American support for our Ukrainian friends and allies.”