Former US president Donald Trump said he would quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war in a way that was “good for both sides” if he won re-election in November, as he met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss Kyiv’s “victory plan”.
Mr Zelenskiy held talks with Mr Trump a day after he met US president Joe Biden and his vice-president Kamala Harris – the Democrats’ election candidate – in a bid to secure stronger White House commitments to Ukraine, including permission to use western-supplied missiles to strike important military targets deeper inside Russia.
Mr Trump said that if he wins re-election, “we’re going to work very much with both parties to try to get this settled ... It has to end at some point, it has to end – he’s going through hell and his country’s going through hell,” he said beside Mr Zelenskiy.
“So we’re going to sit down, just discuss it, and if we have a win, I think long before January 20th, before I would take the presidency ... I think that we can work out something that’s good for both sides. It’s time,” he added.
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Mr Trump also praised Mr Zelenskiy for being “like a piece of steel” in the face of what he described as pressure to criticise him when he was impeached for asking the Ukrainian president in a 2019 phone call to investigate Mr Biden and his son Hunter.
“He could have played cute and he didn’t play cute. And so I appreciated that. And so we have a very good relationship. And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with president [Vladimir] Putin,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Zelenskiy, a former stand-up comedian, interjected that he hoped he and Mr Trump had “more good relations” than his host had with Russia’s autocratic leader.
“I think we have a common view that war in Ukraine has to be stopped and Putin can’t win and Ukrainians have to prevail. And I want to discuss with you the details of our plan of victory,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
“It’s very important to share all the plan, all our steps, how we can strengthen Ukraine,” he added. “We understand that after November we have to decide. And we hope that the strength of the United States will be very strong, and we count on it – that’s why I decided to meet with both [presidential] candidates.”
Mr Trump has criticised pro-western Ukraine for not making concessions to the Kremlin to avert its devastating all-out invasion in February 2022.
For his part, Mr Zelenskiy has suggested that Mr Trump and his team do not fully understand the biggest conflict in Europe since 1945 and do not have a real plan for bringing it swiftly to an end.
When he welcomed Mr Zelenskiy to the White House on Thursday, Mr Biden unveiled $8 billion (€7.2 billion) more in US military aid for Ukraine, saying: “Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way.”
In a statement, however, Washington made no mention of Mr Zelenskiy’s request for clearance for deeper missile strikes inside Russia – a prospect that has prompted Russian warnings of retaliation against the West, including potentially with nuclear weapons.
“The two leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic and military aspects of President Zelenskiy’s plan and tasked their teams to engage in intensive consultations regarding next steps,” the White House said.
A Russian drone attack killed at least three people and wounded 14 in the Ukrainian Danube port of Izmail on Friday, and neighbouring Nato member Romania was investigating whether one of the drones briefly entered its airspace.
