Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump mentioned Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needed Democrats to win the 2024 US election by which the previous US president will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump additionally mentioned that if he wins the election, he’ll name Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy and urge them to achieve a deal to finish the battle between Russia and Ukraine.
“I feel Zelenskyy is the best salesman in historical past. Each time he involves the nation, he leaves with $60 billion,” Trump mentioned at a rally in Pennsylvania. “He desperately needs them to win this election, however I might do one thing completely different: I might work for peace.”
The Zelensky and Harris campaigns had no speedy response to Trump’s remarks, and Trump didn’t elaborate on his peace plan. Polls present a detailed race between Trump and Harris.
Zelenskyy arrived in the USA on Sunday to attend classes of the UN Basic Meeting and urged his companions to assist obtain “a shared victory for a really simply peace.”
Washington and its allies have supplied a multi-billion greenback help program to Ukraine for the reason that Russian invasion started in February 2022, whereas imposing a number of rounds of sanctions in opposition to Moscow.
Trump has constantly referred to as U.S. support to Ukraine a waste of cash and has refused to say he needs Ukraine to win. Though Trump and Zelenskyy spoke by telephone in July, they haven’t spoken in particular person since Trump’s time period in workplace (2017-2021).
Zelenskyy had beforehand mentioned he couldn’t predict what Trump would do if he gained in November, however he hoped the Republican would keep US army help for Ukraine.
In an interview with the BBC in July, Zelenskiy mentioned working with Trump can be “laborious work, however we’re very hard-working.”
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of hundreds of individuals, uprooted tens of millions extra and devastated Ukrainian cities and cities.
Putin says peace talks can solely start if kyiv offers Russia components of jap and southern Ukraine and abandons its ambitions for NATO membership. Zelenskiy has repeatedly referred to as for the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders.
Ukraine and the West declare that Russia is waging an imperial-style battle. Putin described the invasion of Ukraine as a defensive measure in opposition to a hostile and aggressive West.
