Volodymyr Zelensky said he hopes Donald Trump has a better relationship with him than with Vladimir Putin.
Getty Images via AFP
Donald Trump pledged on Friday to “resolve” the war in Ukraine in the event of victory in the American presidential election in November, following a very delicate interview with Volodymyr Zelensky. “This war should never have taken place, but we are going to resolve it,” said the former American president from New York, without explaining how.
The billionaire, a candidate in the November 5 election, called the conflict a “complex puzzle” and called for a “fair deal for everyone.”
Just before his exchange with the Ukrainian president, Donald Trump had already praised his “very good relationship” with Volodymyr Zelensky, but also with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I hope we have better relations,” reacted the Ukrainian president, visibly embarrassed. Before assuring that he and Donald Trump shared the same objective: “ending the war.”
Traveling to the United States since Sunday, Volodymyr Zelensky met the former American president, assured of the support of the current administration, but obviously worried about the future of aid to his country at war.
“Best salesperson on the planet”
Donald Trump regularly denounces the staggering amounts released by Washington for kyiv since 2022. Just this week, the septuagenarian described Volodymyr Zelensky as “the best salesman on the planet”. “Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with 60 billion dollars,” he quipped.
A meeting between the two men had been mentioned in recent days, on the occasion of Zelensky’s visit to the United States, the fourth since the start of the Russian invasion.
But that interview was put on hold, apparently because of an interview with the Ukrainian leader in which he said the Republican candidate “didn’t really know how to stop this war.”
Donald Trump has in fact repeatedly claimed that if he were re-elected, he would resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours”, without ever explaining how.
The last meeting between Donald Trump and Voloymyr Zelensky took place five years ago, almost to the day, in a radically different context.
The Republican was then in the White House and running for re-election; the Ukrainian leader, a former actor, in power for only a few months. Donald Trump had above all been accused of having frozen crucial military aid to kyiv to get his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Joe Biden, whose son was doing business in the country.
The two men have since spoken on the telephone, notably at the end of July after the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
This new in-person meeting comes the day after a visit to Washington by the Ukrainian president, where he spoke with President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, after a visit to the US Congress.
On X, President Zelensky said he was “grateful” for his “very productive meeting” with Trump.
(afp)
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