Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, as he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday.
“It’s a shame but this is a war that should have never happened and we’ll get it solved,” said the Republican White House hopeful at Trump Tower. “It is a complicated puzzle… Too many people dead. Too many beautiful cities.”
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy sat down for a potentially fractious meeting, following a series of scathing attacks by the White House hopeful on the Ukrainian president’s handling of the conflict with Russia.
Zelenskyy had met Trump’s U.S. election rival Kamala Harris, as well as President Joe Biden, on Thursday and both pledged their support for Kyiv in U.S.-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 U.S. president said that “long before” he returns to the White House on Jan. 20 “we can work out something that’s good for both sides.”
Zelenskyy described the “common view” between both men that the war must come to an end.
U.S. media had earlier reported the meeting would not go ahead after Trump was offended by Zelenskyy’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 U.S. 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 Zelenskyy 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 – Zelenskyy,” he told supporters.
Zelenskyy is in the United States this week participating in the U.N. 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.
Trump has long been critical of the billions of dollars in U.S. 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 Zelenskyy’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 Zelenskyy 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 Zelenskyy, pleased that the Ukrainian defended him over the impeachment.
