Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York on Sept. 27.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his war “victory plan” to Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting on Friday, after the Republican presidential candidate said he would work with both Ukraine and Russia to end their conflict.
The meeting between the two men at Trump Tower in Manhattan was their first in-person encounter since 2019. Zelensky said he was talking with both Trump and his Democratic rival in the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, because Ukraine needed strong U.S. support in its continuing war with Russia.
Trump praised Zelensky, but said he also had a solid relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have a very good relationship (with Zelensky), 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 resolved very quickly,” he added.
Zelensky has used his U.S. visit to promote his “victory plan,” which a U.S. 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.
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 news conference on Friday, when Zelensky 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 Zelensky, a marked change in tone from some of his previous comments on the campaign trail. After the meeting, Zelensky called his talks with Trump “very productive.”
On Monday, Trump said Zelensky wanted Harris to win the election. He has also called Zelensky “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 Nov. 5 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.
Zelensky, who was in the United States for the U.N. General Assembly, met on Thursday with Democratic President Joe Biden and Harris.
Over the weekend, Zelensky 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 U.S. election.
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 Zelensky’s stay in the country.
Trump and Harris’ differences on Ukraine echo splits in their respective Democratic and Republican parties, and their view of the U.S. role in the world.
Along with Trump, some Republicans in Congress have questioned the value of U.S. funding and additional weapons for Ukraine’s two-year battle against Russia’s invasion, calling it futile, while Democrats led by 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 in general lag behind domestic issues like the economy, health care and immigration in terms of what most voters think are important.
But a strong majority, 64%, of registered voters say they support Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied arms to strike within Russia, according to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll, including 78% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans.