Ukraine’s state-run Ukrinform news service on Wednesday reported that Ukrainians who live in Minnesota are pleased with the “firm pro-Ukrainian stance” of Gov. Tim Walz (D), who is currently embroiled in a scandal due to exaggerating his military service for political gain after being tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate.
Ukrinform’s article was built around an interview with Luda Anastazievsky, who chairs the Ukrainian American Advocacy Committee of Minnesota. Anastazievsky said she met Walz at a rally in St. Paul shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and was favorably impressed by his words of devotion to the Ukrainian community.
“Without Ukrainian residents of Minnesota, there is no Minnesota, and today we are all Ukrainians,” she recalled Walz saying.
Anastazievsky went on to testify before the Minnesota legislature in support of a bill that banned state investments in Russia and its ally Belarus. The bill passed and Walz subsequently ordered Minnesota agencies to terminate their contracts with Russian entities.
“Walz then raised the Ukrainian flag over his residence as a sign of support for Ukraine,” Ukrinform interjected.
Anastazievsky saluted Walz as a “strong supporter of Ukraine” and claimed his true strength is “that he can find, as they say, a middle ground, an opportunity to negotiate with both sides.”
Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, has been skeptical of heavy funding for the Ukraine war. Trump has also expressed confidence he can end the war through negotiations, even before he takes office – a pledge he made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July and repeated in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Thursday.
“I know both heads of the countries. I know President Putin very well. I want to see the death stopping. There’s death and there’s destruction. They are destroying the whole fabric of a certain part of the world. I want to get it negotiated, and get it done,” Trump said on Thursday.
Trump doubted Harris would be able to manage any such conclusion to the hostilities in Ukraine.
“I don’t think she has any clue. She wouldn’t handle it at all. I don’t think she’d do anything. I think it would just go on and millions of people will die. It could evolve into a World War also,” he said.