Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expresses confidence that Donald Trump will support Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia if he wins re-election. Explore the latest remarks and their potential impact.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claims that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has told him that the United States will continue to support Ukraine if he wins the presidency this November. Zelensky also denied reports that he supported Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said he doesn’t know “what will happen after the (US presidential) elections, who will be president,” but that Kyiv “expects an answer from the United States.”
He stressed that Washington’s position is especially important because Washington has always been Kyiv’s main supporter. Zelensky said his conversation with Trump on Friday was “really productive.”
“I received very direct information from Donald Trump that he is on our side and will support Ukraine,” he further claimed. Zelensky added that the Republican candidate is “very interested” in hearing from the president “directly” about the current situation on the front and Ukraine’s needs.
The former US president claimed he could force Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a diplomatic solution “within 24 hours” after the election.
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In an interview with The New Yorker last Sunday, the Ukrainian president said he believes President Trump “may think he knows how to end the war, but he doesn’t.” Asked by a Fox News host if he still stood by that statement, Zelensky argued that no one outside Ukraine can truly understand what his country is going through.
After his meeting with Zelensky on Friday, President Trump said, “We both want an end to it, we both want a fair deal.”
At a campaign rally on Wednesday, President Trump criticized Zelensky for not negotiating with Russia to end the conflict, saying even a “bad deal” would be better than the status quo. The former president also claimed that neither his Democratic rival Kamala Harris nor President Joe Biden know how the US can get out of the Ukraine conflict.
Trump further claimed that Zelensky was keen for Harris to “win this election” because the Democrats proved that they were indeed generous towards Ukraine during Biden’s tenure.
“I consider Zelensky the greatest salesman of all time. He gets paid $60 billion every time he enters the country,” he said. President Trump had previously made it clear that he would put an end to the issue.
Moscow has made Ukraine’s neutrality one of the main goals of its military operations, arguing that any peace talks must take into account the “territorial reality” of Russia’s control over former Ukrainian territory that Kiev claims as its own.
