In February 2022, US Vice President Kamala Harris went to Europe with an important mission against the background of the accumulation of Russian troops on the borders of Ukraine. As Simon Schuster points out in an article for TIME, her visit to Munich and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became a symbol of difficult diplomatic relations that called into question the effectiveness of American support and strategy in response to the threat from Russia.
In mid-February 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Europe to carry out a mission of critical importance on the world stage. Nearly 200,000 Russian troops were stationed on Ukraine's borders, and their invasion would be one of the biggest challenges to the US-led international order in decades.
The Biden administration has seconded Harris to help Europeans meet this challenge. Like every aspect of Harris' record, her meddling in international affairs has come under renewed scrutiny since she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
During her time in the Biden administration, no threat to U.S. interests in the world was more pressing than the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Harris played a prominent role at times in the U.S. response to it.
Her trip to Germany in 2022, less than a week before the invasion began, brought Harris to the annual meeting of European leaders in Munich. One of her tasks was to meet with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and convey to him how the US intends to respond to the invasion - and how it will not respond. According to a White House official, she was also expected to present the latest US intelligence assessments and explain "the training needed to succeed on the battlefield."
The message she delivered was not entirely desirable, and the impression she made on Ukrainians was mixed.
"Kamala Harris said that the attack was inevitable," recalls Oleksiy Reznikov, who was present at the meeting as the Minister of Defense of Ukraine at the time.
To which President Zelensky replied: "I understand: I understood. Our intelligence also sees this information."
But he and Harris could not agree on an appropriate response. Zelensky called on the US to impose pre-emptive sanctions against Russia, arguing that it would force Vladimir Putin to reconsider his decision to invade. If an attack is truly imminent, Zelenskyi argued, the U.S. should give Ukraine the weapons, including anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets and heavy artillery, needed to prevent a Russian takeover of the country.
Harris rejected both offers, according to Ukrainian officials present in the room. She said that the US cannot impose pre-emptive sanctions against Russia, because punishment can only come after a crime has been committed. Instead of promising to send modern weapons, Reznikov says, the Americans pressured Zelensky to publicly declare that an invasion was inevitable.
"Zelensky pointedly asked Kamala Harris: "You want me to admit it, but what will that do for you? If I admit it here, in this conversation, will you impose sanctions?”. And he did not receive an answer."
The U.S. position at the time, as determined by President Biden in consultation with his national security aides, was that the threat of sanctions was a greater deterrent to Russia than their imposition, and that providing Kiev with the latest weapons would likely reinforce Putin's belief that that Ukraine becomes a client country of NATO.
"Vice President Harris has been a strong supporter of the United States' long-term support for Ukraine and has repeatedly expressed unwavering support for the people of Ukraine, who are defending themselves from Russia's brutal aggression," the White House representative said.
Harris' other major role at the conference was to rally European leaders for a united response in the event of an invasion, and to outline the US position in his speech.
"She met with European leaders to coordinate responses in anticipation of a Russian invasion," a White House official told TIME, and in her speech at the conference, "she predicted Russia's plan of action and outlined the steps the United States and Europe would take together".
However, the message she delivered to Zelensky in Munich deepened his disillusionment with his allies ahead of the Russian invasion and set the tone for relations with Harris that have never been particularly warm. While President Biden and other senior administration officials have visited Kyiv to show resolve and solidarity with Ukrainians, Harris has not traveled to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began.
During meetings with Ukrainian officials in recent years, she did show sympathy for their plight, as one of them said, "but I would call it formal sympathy, according to the protocol." When asked about this, a representative of the White House noted that Vice President Harris traveled a lot, trying to rally European allies and support the Ukrainians in their war against Russia. Shortly after the invasion began, she visited Poland and Romania to meet with European leaders and U.S. military personnel on NATO's eastern flank "to strengthen our deterrence and defense capabilities," the official said.
In relations with the Zelenskyi administration, President Biden has usually taken the initiative, partly because of his history of direct interaction with Ukraine. After Russia first invaded Ukraine and seized part of its territory in 2014, Biden led the US response on behalf of the Obama administration, visiting Kyiv in 2015 to deliver a historic speech to the Ukrainian parliament. Since the start of full-scale war in 2022, key US officials involved in the US response have included Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, William Burns, CIA director, Anthony Blinken, secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, secretary of defense, all they repeatedly visited Kyiv during the invasion. Vice President Harris typically played a supporting role, attending summits and other important war-related meetings when Biden was unable to attend.
At the Munich Security Conference in 2023, Harris focused on war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
"As a former prosecutor, the vice president has been an important trusted messenger and rallied the world to hold Russia accountable for its atrocities in Ukraine," said a White House official.
Earlier this summer, Harris was also present at a peace summit organized by Ukraine in Switzerland. At this event, Zelensky hoped to gather as many world leaders as possible to support his plan to end the war. Biden declined to attend, citing a fundraiser he was scheduled to host that week in Hollywood, and Zelensky responded by publicly criticizing the US president: Putin, he said, would "applaud" Biden's decision not to attend. When Harris arrived in his place, her meeting with Zelenskyi was marked by the same formality as their previous meetings. The two leaders sat across from each other at the negotiating table as reporters were ushered into their meeting room at the Alpine resort. Zelensky read a previously prepared speech, thanking President Biden and the US Congress for their support.
"Putin is trying to expand the war and make it bloodier," he said.
"But together with America and all our partners, we protect the lives of our people." In response, Harris noted that this would be her sixth meeting with the president of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war.
"Not the last," replied Zelensky with a smile.
"And hopefully in better times," Harris said.
