Former President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York on Friday, where Trump expressed that it was time to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The meeting was unexpected, as Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, has often criticized Zelensky during his campaign. Speculation about a meeting between the two had seemed improbable until shortly before it took place.
Standing side by side, Zelensky acknowledged a shared goal: “We both agree that the war must end, and Putin cannot be allowed to win,” Zelensky stated. He added that they would discuss his “victory plan” in further detail with Trump.
Despite past disagreements, Trump maintained that he had a positive relationship with Zelensky, stating, “I also have a very strong relationship with President Putin, and I believe if we win the election, we’ll resolve this issue very quickly.”
“It has to end, [Zelensky] is going through hell, his country’s going through hell like few countries have ever,” he told reporters.
The pair have endured a tumultuous relationship. Trump was impeached in 2019 over accusations that he pressured Zelensky to dig up damaging information on the Biden family.
A rough transcript of the call revealed Trump had urged Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, as well as Biden’s son Hunter.
Standing beside Zelensky on Friday, he praised the Ukrainian leader’s handling of the issue.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Trump has frequently repeated Moscow’s talking points about the war. During September’s presidential debate, he sidestepped a question on whether he wanted Ukraine to emerge victorious in the conflict.
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Trump repeated his long-standing claim that he would be able to “work out something” to settle the war if he won the presidential election, long before Joe Biden leaves office in January.
He has refused to elaborate when asked whether he believes Ukraine should cede territory to Russia as a means of ending the war.
Although Zelensky has been visiting the US since Sunday, their meeting was only confirmed on Thursday night, when Trump posted a screenshot of a text message from President Zelensky saying it was “important for us to have a personal contact and to understand each other 100%”.
There have been tensions all week between Zelensky and the Republican party ahead of November’s US presidential election.
Some Republicans were angered by Zelensky’s visit to an arms factory in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, with top Democrats, including state Governor Josh Shapiro, earlier this week.
Zelensky’s trip to the key swing state was labelled by leading Republicans as a partisan campaign event. In a public letter, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the visit was “designed to help Democrats” and claimed it amounted to “election interference”.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris at the White House to discuss his “victory plan,” aimed at pressuring Russia into negotiating a diplomatic resolution to the war.
Earlier that day, Biden announced an additional $7.9 billion (£5.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine, further bolstering its defense efforts.
As Zelensky continued his visit to the US, drone attacks persisted in Ukraine. On Thursday night, a Russian drone strike on Izmail, a key port city along the River Danube, claimed three lives and left 14 others injured. Among the wounded were two boys, aged three and 13, and a 14-year-old girl, according to prosecutors.
Russia has previously targeted Izmail’s grain export infrastructure. Romania’s defense ministry reported that one of the Russian drones may have briefly crossed into Romanian airspace, a NATO member state, during the attack.
