Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met face-to-face with Donald Trump Friday with public tensions rising between the two over Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
“I think we have a common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped and Putin can’t win,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After arriving together at a conference room on Friday, Trump said “the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”
The meeting came at a critical time in the Russia-Ukraine war as Election Day nears in the U.S. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, have taken sharply different approaches to Ukraine.
Trump has for months criticized U.S. support for Ukraine and derided Zelenskyy as a “salesman” for persuading Washington to provide weapons and funding to his military as it tries to fend off Moscow. On Friday, however, Trump brought up his first impeachment in 2019, which Democrats in Congress pursued after he asked Zelenskyy for a “favor” — that he investigate Joe Biden, now the president, and Biden’s son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
At the time Trump asked for the “favor,” he was withholding $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as it fought Russian-backed separatists on its eastern boundary.
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“He could have grandstanded and played cute,” Trump said. “And he didn’t do that. He said, ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ He said it loud and clear.”
Zelenskyy told reporters in October 2019, as Congress was launching its impeachment inquiry, that there was “no blackmail” from Trump. He also told reporters, “I don’t want to interfere in any way in the elections,” trying to publicly and privately distance himself then from U.S. domestic politics.
Friday’s meeting almost wasn’t scheduled despite Zelenskyy’s office saying something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, during which he is making his endgame pitch to allies.
In an interview with The New Yorker that was published earlier this week, Zelenskyy implied Trump does not understand and oversimplifies the conflict. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s running mate JD Vance was “too radical” and has essentially advocated for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories.”
Trump ripped Zelenskyy and Ukraine on two separate occasions this week. Speaking Wednesday in North Carolina, he referred to Ukraine as “demolished” and its people as “dead.”
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they made a bad deal it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”
Meanwhile, Harris on Thursday stood alongside Zelenskyy and said Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly cut a deal to end the war was “not proposals for peace,” but “proposals for surrender.” Trump on Thursday said he was not advocating for a surrender.
As he was preparing to sit down for the Friday meeting, Trump was asked by a reporter if Ukraine could win the war and he replied, “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’re going to get it resolved very quickly.”
Zelenskyy cut into Trump’s remarks with, “I hope we have more good relations between us.”
— Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Mascaro from Washington.
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