Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky sat down for a potentially fractious meeting Friday, following a series of scathing attacks by the White House hopeful on the Ukrainian president’s handling of the conflict with Russia.
Zelensky had met Trump’s US election rival Kamala Harris, as well as President Joe Biden, on Thursday and both pledged their support for Kyiv in US-funded defense against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump — who this week accused Zelensky of refusing to “make a deal” to end the conflict — voiced hopes for a “good meeting” with the Ukrainian leader as the two men appeared together before reporters at Trump Tower in New York.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship — as you know — with President (Vladimir) Putin. And I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly.”
The former US president said that “long before” he returns to the White House on January 20 “we can work out something that’s good for both sides.”
Zelensky described the “common view” between both men that the war must come to an end.
US media had earlier reported the meeting would not go ahead after Trump was offended by Zelensky’s comments to The New Yorker magazine, in which he said that the Republican “doesn’t really know how to stop the war” and that his running mate J.D. Vance was “too radical.”
The interview was published amid Republican outcry over the Ukrainian leader’s trip to Pennsylvania with Democratic politicians to thank US workers for manufacturing ammunition that is helping Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.
Trump, who refused to say whether he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia during his debate with Harris earlier this month, hit back at Zelensky at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal — Zelensky,” he told supporters.
Zelensky is in the United States this week participating in the UN General Assembly in New York, and looking to shore up support for his country’s war effort as it struggles on the battlefield in the third year of Moscow’s invasion.
He scrambled to get the Trump meeting back on track, understanding that a rift with an incoming Trump administration could spell disaster for Ukraine.
– Row with Trump –
The Ukrainian leader presented a so-called “victory” plan to Biden and Harris at the White House on Thursday, with Biden announcing a new military aid package worth nearly $8 billion for Kyiv.
Standing with Zelensky at her side, Harris did not mention Trump by name but said there were “some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory.”
Biden pledged in a separate meeting with Zelensky that “Russia will not prevail” in the war it launched in February 2022.
Dressed in his trademark military-style outfit, Zelensky replied that “we deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side.”
However, his visit has been clouded by the row with Trump which underscored how November’s US election could upend the support that Ukraine receives from its biggest backer.
Trump has long been critical of the billions of dollars in US support for Ukraine.
He has echoed many of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talking points, saying at a rally earlier this week that Ukraine could not win as Russia “beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon, that’s what they do.”
Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum pointed out on X that since 1900, Russia or the Soviet Union had lost various wars, including against Japan, Poland and Afghanistan, while its victory alongside allies in World War II was extremely costly and was achieved thanks to massive foreign aid.
House Republicans have launched investigations into Zelensky’s Pennsylvania trip, suggesting it amounted to election interference, and calling for the Ukrainian ambassador in Washington to be fired.
When Trump was president, he asked Zelensky for potentially damaging political material on Biden ahead of the 2020 election — which led to the first of the Republican’s two impeachments.
But the Republican had maintained good relations with Zelensky, pleased that the Ukrainian defended him over the impeachment.
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