Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived for a meeting with Donald Trump as public tensions have been rising between the two over Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
“I think we have a common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped and Putin can’t win,” Mr Zelenskiy said referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
After arriving together at a conference room on Friday, Mr Trump said: “The fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”
The visit is taking place at Trump Tower in New York, a day after vice president Kamala Harris, Mr Trump’s Democratic opponent, met with the Ukrainian leader and expressed unwavering support.
The meeting is highly anticipated and comes as Election Day nears, with Mr Trump and Ms Harris taking sharply different positions on backing Ukraine in the third year of its war with Russia.
Mr Trump has in recent days praised Russia’s historic military victories and insisted the US needs “to get out” and end its involvement with Ukraine.
Friday’s meeting almost was not scheduled despite Mr Zelenskiy’s office saying something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the UN General Assembly, during which he is making his endgame pitch to allies.
In an interview with The New Yorker that was published earlier this week, Mr Zelenskiy implied Mr Trump does not understand and oversimplifies the conflict.
The Ukrainian leader said Mr Trump’s running mate JD Vance was “too radical” and had essentially advocated for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories”.
Mr Trump attacked Mr Zelenskiy and Ukraine on two separate occasions this week. Speaking in North Carolina, Mr Trump referred to Ukraine as “demolished” and its people as “dead”.
“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Mr Trump said.
“If they made a bad deal it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living and every building would be built and every tower would be ageing for another 2,000 years.”
Meanwhile, Ms Harris on Thursday stood alongside Mr Zelenskiy and said Mr Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly cut a deal to end the war were “not proposals for peace,” but “proposals for surrender”.
Mr Trump on Thursday said he was not advocating for a surrender.
While Mr Trump and Mr Vance have been critical of US backing for Ukraine, other Republican allies of the former president have backed Kyiv’s defence against Moscow’s invasion and argue supporting Ukraine is in America’s interest.
