One of the most defining foreign policy issues of President Joe Biden’s tenure has been the war in Ukraine.
After Russia launched an invasion of the country in 2022, support for Ukraine — and providing tens of billions of dollars in aid — was bipartisan.
Congress has approved $175 billion for the war effort so far, some of which has gone directly to Ukraine and some of which has been spent on weapons manufacturing in the US.
In the last two years, a wide partisan gap has opened over the issue. In April, a majority of House Republicans voted against Ukraine aid.
Biden has broadly signaled that his administration intends to continue providing aid to Ukraine. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, would likely curtail aid to Ukraine in a bid to end the war.
Here’s a look at each candidate’s stance on the issue.
Where Joe Biden stands on Ukraine
Since the beginning of the war, Biden and his administration have remained staunchly in favor of providing aid to Ukraine.
Biden and other Democrats have argued that doing so is not merely an act of charity, but a relatively cost-efficient means of combating Russian aggression and upholding the US-led world order.
Recently, the Biden administration and other NATO countries decided to let Ukraine use their weapons to strike targets inside Russia, potentially breaking a long-standing stalemate.
During a recent interview with TIME at the end of May, Biden seemed to indicate that he is not supportive of a negotiated settlement of the conflict along current battle lines.
“Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine,” said Biden. “That’s what peace looks like.”
Where Donald Trump stands on Ukraine
Trump’s position on Ukraine is somewhat murky.
He has floated the idea of giving aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan, something that even some of his allies have balked at. In March, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán claimed that Trump would totally cut off funding for Ukraine if he won, which the former president later denied.
His most consistent line when it comes to Ukraine has been that Europe is not doing enough — and the US is doing too much — to aid the country, and that he would move to swiftly end the war if elected.
Thus, one can expect a second Trump administration to be far less supportive of Ukraine’s current war aims.
For one, the GOP — especially at the congressional level — has swiftly turned against more aid. Trump’s closest allies in Congress, including Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, are fierce opponents of Ukraine aid.
Additionally, the Washington Post reported in April that Trump favors pushing Ukraine to cede some territory to Russia, including the currently Russian-occupied regions of Crimea and the Donbas.
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