Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his war “victory plan” to Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting, after the Republican presidential candidate said he would work with both Ukraine and Russia to end their conflict.
The meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Friday was the pair’s first in-person encounter since 2019.
Mr Zelenskyy said he was talking with both Trump and his Democratic rival in the November 5 election, Vice-President Kamala Harris, because Ukraine needed strong US support in its continuing war with Russia.
Trump praised Mr Zelenskyy, but said he also had a solid relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have a very good relationship (with Mr Zelenskyy), and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin,” Trump told reporters.
“And I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it [the war] resolved very quickly,” he added.
Mr Zelenskyy has used his US visit to promote his victory plan, which a US official described as a repackaged request for more weapons and a lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles. The plan presupposes the ultimate defeat of Russia in the war, the official said. Some officials see the aim as unrealistic.
The pair met at Trump Tower in New York a day after the Ukrainian president’s White House visit. (Reuters: Shannon Stapleton)
When asked on Thursday by a reporter if Ukraine should hand over some of the Ukrainian land Russia has captured to end the war — a non-starter for Kyiv — Trump replied: “We’ll see what happens.”
At one point during a pre-meeting press conference on Friday, when Mr Zelenskyy suggested he had a better relationship with Trump than Putin did, Trump responded: “Yeah, but you know it takes two to tango.”
Still, Trump said on Friday he was pleased to meet with Mr Zelenskyy, a marked change in tone from some of his previous comments on the campaign trail. After the meeting, Mr Zelenskyy called his talks with Trump “very productive”.
On Monday, Trump said Mr Zelenskyy wanted Ms Harris to win the election. He has also called Mr Zelenskyy “the greatest salesman of all time” because his country has received billions of dollars in military aid from the United States and Europe.
“It’s an honour to have the president with us, and he’s been through a lot,” Trump said on Friday. “He’s been through a tremendous amount, like probably nobody else, almost nobody else in history, if you really get right down to it, and we’re going to have a discussion and see what we could come up with.”
Trump, Harris differ on Ukraine
Trump on Friday said that if he won the election he would immediately begin working toward a resolution of the Ukraine conflict, even though he would formally take office only in late January 2025.
Mr Zelenskyy, who was in the United States for the UN General Assembly, met on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Ms Harris at the White House.
Over the weekend, he travelled to a munitions factory in Pennsylvania with that state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, a Harris ally. The visit upset Trump’s campaign and enraged some congressional Republicans who viewed the trip as a campaign stop, particularly as Pennsylvania is an important battleground state expected to decide the US election.
Kamala Harris pledged her full support to Ukraine on Thursday, as the Democrats committed more than $US8 billion in funding. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
As late as Thursday, people close to Trump and his campaign had said a meeting appeared extremely unlikely, though the former president apparently changed his mind during Mr Zelenskyy’s stay in the country.
Trump and Ms Harris’s differences on Ukraine echo splits in their respective Democratic and Republican parties, and their view of the US role in the world.
Along with Trump, some Republicans in Congress have questioned the value of US funding and additional weapons for Ukraine’s two-year battle against Russia’s invasion, calling it futile, while Democrats led by Mr Biden have pushed to punish Russia and bolster Ukraine, framing Ukraine’s victory as a vital national security interest.
The war in Ukraine and foreign policy is in general lag behind domestic issues like the economy, healthcare and immigration in terms of what most voters think are important.
But 64 per cent of registered voters say they support Ukraine’s use of US-supplied arms to strike within Russia, according to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll, including 78 per cent of Democrats and 56 per cent of Republicans.
Reuters