Former President Donald Trump sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York City on Friday, just one day after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the European leader and announced an additional $8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine.
The meeting also comes days after Zelensky called Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), “too radical” and expressed doubt that Trump has a plan for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. The conflict is now in its 31st month as Russian and Ukrainian soldiers continue to fight over Ukraine’s southern and eastern territory.
Trump has promised to end the bloodbath in Ukraine if he becomes president. Before meeting with Zelensky, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled,” The Hill reported.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And I think if we win I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Trump added before Zelensky chimed in, saying, “I hope we have more good relations.”
“But it takes two to tango, you know, and we’re going to have a good meeting today,” Trump continued. “And I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”
Zelensky told The New Yorker earlier this week, “Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
“With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand,” Zelensky added. “I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.”
The Ukrainian president also said Vance is “too radical,” arguing that the Republican vice presidential candidate’s message “seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice.”
Trump blasted Zelensky at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday for “making little nasty aspersions” toward him. The former president also called Zelensky the “greatest salesman on Earth,” adding, “Those buildings are down. Those cities are gone. They’re gone. And we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal.”
Some conservatives accused Zelensky of “election interference” after he appeared with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) at a factory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania earlier this week. During their visit to the factory, Shapiro signed an artillery shell that was being shipped to Ukraine.
“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote in a letter to Zelensky.
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