Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for criticizing him and refusing to make a deal to end the conflict with Moscow, casting a shadow over the Ukrainian president’s latest push for more aid in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

“The president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me,” the Republican presidential nominee said at a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”

Trump’s comments were some of the harshest public language he’s used about the conflict and the Ukrainian leader, who had hoped to meet the former president during a visit to the U.S. this week but made critical comments in a media interview.

The Ukrainian president is in the United States touting a new “victory plan” that he’s set to present to President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday. He’s seeking additional support for the fight, which is heading into its third winter with no sign of a breakthrough on the battlefield. The U.S. election has deepened questions about whether Washington will continue its support.

Zelenskyy started his trip to the U.S. with moves that alienated the Trump camp, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified to discuss matters that aren’t public. They said Trump won’t meet Zelenskyy this week.

Zelenskyy’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

First was a weekend stop at an artillery-shell factory in Biden’s Pennsylvania hometown, attended by the state’s Democratic governor, a strong supporter of Trump’s presidential rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Then came The New Yorker magazine interview where Zelenskyy questioned Trump’s pledges to negotiate a quick end to the war if elected.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson released a letter to Zelenskyy on Wednesday saying the factory visit was “clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference.” He called on Zelenskyy to fire his ambassador to Washington for having organized it.

The House Oversight Committee said it’s opening an investigation into what it called “the Biden-Harris administration’s use of taxpayer funded resources to fly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Pennsylvania to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The White House declined to comment.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he was “beyond bothered” by Zelenskyy’s visit to the factory in Pennsylvania but that it was his comments in the interview that gave him cause for concern. Graham has been a staunch backer of Ukraine but is also a close ally of Trump.

“I don’t mind saying thank you for providing us bombs,” Graham said. “But the comments about Vance and Trump were not helpful.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how much damage Zelenskyy may have done to support for aid to Ukraine in Congress, where even some Republicans continue to back his country’s fight.

In a speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, Zelenskyy called on other nations to support his peace plan and rejected alternatives that he said would only embolden Russia. “Any parallel or alternative attempts to seek peace are, in fact, efforts to achieve a lull instead of an end to the war,” he said.

Ahead of the Washington meetings, allied officials signaled that they don’t expect Zelenskyy’s so-called victory plan to yield a breakthrough in the war, which is heading into its third winter.

One person familiar with Zelenskyy’s conversations with foreign leaders, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said there were no real surprises in the victory plan and it wasn’t a major game-changer. Another official described it as a “wish list.”

Zelenskyy told reporters Friday the plan aims to put his country in a stronger position for future diplomatic talks with Russia. Kyiv has worried that a cease-fire without clear guarantees would leave Russian President Vladimir Putin free to strike again after re-arming.

Trump has repeatedly promised to deliver a negotiated end to the war if elected but he hasn’t provided details of how that would happen.

“There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now,” he said in the speech Wednesday.

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(With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Hadriana Lowenkron, Stephanie Lai, Billy House and Nancy Cook.)

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