Grant Shapps, the United Kingdom's secretary of defense, vowed on Sunday that the U.K. will continue supporting Ukraine's fight against Russia no matter how the 2024 presidential election in the United States shakes out.
Ukraine remains locked in a heated conflict with Russia, over a year-and-a-half since Moscow launched its invasion, citing alleged persecution of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and falsely claiming that its government was run by neo-Nazis. Over the course of the conflict, the U.S. has provided nearly $77 billion in aid, roughly $46 billion of which has specifically been military aid, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
This support for Ukraine has received heated pushback from Republican lawmakers in the U.S., most of whom have said that the money should be spent domestically, and some of whom have gone as far as to argue against Ukraine's cause. Former President Donald Trump has been among those Republicans, and it has been widely assumed that he will cut aid to Ukraine if he's reelected in 2024, especially given his well-documented fondness for and unwillingness to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During an interview with the BBC, Shapps stressed that the U.K. would continue to stand with Ukraine, no matter what the ultimate result of the 2024 presidential election is.
"That's a while down the line before we see what happens in the Republican election, but we will carry on standing shoulder to shoulder with our friends in Ukraine," Shapps said.
He continued: "We know what happens when we allow a tyrant to invade a neighbor and then continue westward. And it's absolutely essential that Putin is unable to walk into a democratic neighbor without consequences. And that is why Britain has stood firm and we will continue to do so."
Newsweek reached out to the U.K. Ministry of Defense via email for comment.
Trump is currently the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, outstripping the rest of the crowded field in support by a wide margin. According to FiveThirtyEight's national polling average, Trump boasts the support of around 55 percent of likely GOP voters, with his nearest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis boasting only 13 percent.
In the most likely instance of a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden in the 2024 general election, most polls have shown the two men to be neck-and-neck with voters. Polls that far out from a general election are, however, generally unreliable and prone to significant shifts as the campaign season continues. Recent electoral trends in the 2022 midterms and other special elections have been notably favorable towards Democrats, despite GOP confidence in their ability to unseat Biden and win back the Senate.
