In a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymiyr Zelensky, former President Donald Trump touted a “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and promised to negotiate a “fair deal” for both sides.
“I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin,” the Republican magnate said before his Friday meeting with Zelensky at Trump Tower. “And I think if we win, we’ll figure it out very quickly.”
Likewise, Zelensky quickly responded: “I really believe we will have better relations.”
For his part, Trump reacted: “You know, it takes two to tango, and we will do it. We are going to have a good meeting today.”
In the midst of the election campaign, the Republican has frequently boasted that he would be able to stop the war in Ukraine, although he did not give details on how, often showing his willingness to work with both sides.
“The president wants this to stop, and I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop too, and that’s a good combination. That’s why we want to have a fair agreement for everyone,” Trump said in a joint interview with Fox News.
However, when asked what a “fair” deal would look like, the tycoon responded: “It’s too early to say.”
Before Friday’s meeting, Trump and Zelensky publicly criticized each other after the Republican examined U.S. funding for the war in Ukraine and at times hinted at his resistance to providing more assistance to the European country.
“Every time Zelensky comes to the United States, he leaves with $100 billion dollars. “I think he’s the best salesman in the world,” Trump said at a campaign event Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia.
“My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even though he thinks he knows how to do it,” Zelensky said in an interview with The New Yorker.
“With this war, often the more you look at it, the less you understand. I have seen many leaders who were convinced that they knew how to finish it tomorrow, and as they dug deeper into it, they realized that it is not that simple.”
This week, Trump joked that Zelensky was “making nasty advances” toward him.
Despite public criticism, the meeting highlights the importance of Ukraine having good relations with both the Democratic and Republican Parties, as its country’s destiny has begun to become more involved in American politics.
Throughout their brief public interactions, Zelensky tried to repudiate some of the terms the former Republican president was using about the war in Ukraine.
In the separate interview with the Fox News channel, Zelensky highlighted the invasion by Russian soldiers of Ukrainian soil.
“We have to do everything possible to pressure him to stop this war, and he is on our territory, and the most important thing is to understand that he is on our territory,” Zelensky said.
This comes after, in recent days, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, left the door open to the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia in negotiations to finally end the war.
When an ABC News reporter asked Trump if Ukraine should hand over part of its territory to Russia to end the war, as Vance had suggested: “We’ll see what happens.”
In a call with the press, Vance responded to the question of whether he believes that Ukraine should give up territory in exchange for ending the war, he offered an answer similar to that of the magnate.
“Everything is going to be on the table,” Vance said. “I think nothing is definitely going to be on the table. “That’s why you negotiate, especially with a guy as skilled as Donald Trump, because you’re really trying to have a conversation between both sides and other interested parties about how to end this war,” he added.
In this sense, Vice President Kamala Harris met with the Ukrainian president, where she alluded to these comments from the Republican Party candidacy.
“However, frankly, I want to tell you, Mr. President, that there are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and demand that Ukraine renounce the security relations with other nations,” Harris said.
Keep reading:
- Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky: what did they say after meeting in New York?
- At the UN, Biden reaffirms his support for an agreement between Israel and Hamas, Ukraine and Venezuela
- Zelensky presents Biden his “victory plan” to end the Russian invasion