Kamala Harris: US won’t put troops on the ground in Ukraine

The vice president also said the U.S. will not “escalate” after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert.

March 2, 2022, 7:54 AM EST

By Scott Stump at abc news – Re-edited and proofread by Brandon Lewis

Vice President #KamalaHarris reiterated on TODAY that the Biden administration is “not going to put U.S. troops on the ground to fight Russians in Ukraine,” as Russia levels up its assault of key Ukrainian cities on Wednesday.

A military convoy stretching for miles is threatening Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, while its second-largest city, Kharkiv, has faced a stepped-up attack from Russia forces.

The U.S. has drawn the line on direct military support for Ukraine, which Harris reaffirmed on Wednesday. 

“As we’ve said, and I’ll repeat, we’re not going to put U.S. troops on the ground to fight Russians in Ukraine, down on the ground or in the air,” Harris expressed to Savannah Guthrie. “However, we have been supplying Ukraine and our allies with an extraordinary amount of support that is about security assistance and military assistance.

“We have deployed thousands of U.S. troops to our NATO alliance countries, Poland being one example, because we are prepared to assist our allies with what they need in terms of support, for example, in receiving refugees, but also we are there because we are an alliance.” – said K. Harris

Video courtesy of ABC news.

The vice president’s comments echoed those by President Joe Biden in Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech.

“Let me be clear,” Biden said. “Our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.”