Trump and Zelenskyy meet in New York amid growing doubts about US support for Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met face-to-face with Donald Trump on Friday, amid growing public tensions between the two over defending Ukraine against Russian invasion and in the context of the US presidential election.

“We both want to see an end to this, and we both want to see a fair deal made,” Trump told Fox News while standing next to Zelenskyy after meeting for 40 minutes. “The president wants it to end, and he wants it to end as soon as possible. “You want a fair transaction to be made.”

Zelenskyy said the war should not have started, adding that pressure was needed on Russian President Vladimir Putin and peace for the families of the dead.

“We have to do everything we can to pressure him to stop this war. He is in our territory. That’s the most important thing to understand. “He is in our territory.”

The meeting took place at a crucial moment in the war between Russia and Ukraine, as the US elections approach. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, have taken very different approaches toward Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has been eager to maintain good relations with the United States, his country’s largest supplier of weapons and war money. However, the future of that support would be in doubt if Trump won the election.

Trump, who has boasted of his good relationship with Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has for months criticized US support for Ukraine and derided Zelenskyy as a “salesman” for persuading Washington to Provide weapons and funds to your army as you try to defend yourself from Moscow.

However, on Friday, Trump recalled his first impeachment in 2019, which congressional Democrats tried to push through after the magnate asked Zelenskyy for “a favor”: to investigate current President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company.

When Trump called in the “favor,” he withheld $400 million in military aid from Ukraine while it fought Russian-backed separatists on its eastern border.

“He could have flaunted and been adorable,” Trump said. “And he didn’t. He said, ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ He said it loud and clear.”

Zelenskyy told reporters in October 2019, as Congress began its impeachment inquiry, that there was no “blackmail” on Trump’s part. He also told reporters that “I don’t want to interfere in the elections in any way,” trying to distance himself publicly and privately from domestic U.S. politics.

Friday’s meeting was almost not scheduled, even though Zelenskyy’s office had said something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, during which he is making his final speech to his allies.

In an interview with The New Yorker published earlier this week, Zelenskyy suggested that Trump misunderstands and oversimplifies the conflict. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, was “too radical” and had essentially advocated for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories.”

Trump criticized Zelenskyy and Ukraine on two different occasions this week. Speaking Wednesday in North Carolina, he referred to Ukraine as “demolished” and its people as “dead.”

“Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they had made a bad deal, it would have been much better. They would have given in a little and everyone would be alive, and every building would be built, and every tower would age for another 2,000 years.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Harris sided with Zelenskyy and said Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly reach a deal to end the war were not “proposals for peace” but “proposals for surrender.” . Trump said Thursday that he was not advocating a surrender.

As he prepared for Friday’s meeting, a reporter asked Trump if Ukraine could win the war, and he responded: “Sure. “They could.”

He said of Zelenskyy: “We have a very good relationship. And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And if we win, I think we will solve it very quickly.”

Zelenskyy interrupted Trump’s comments by saying, “I hope we have more good relations with each other.” Before moving on to another question, Trump interrupted to say, “But, you know, it takes two to tango.”

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