Trump downplays tensions with Zelenskyy, vows to end war

Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday to discuss plans to resolve the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine in New York.

After the meeting, Trump said he had “learned a lot” but that their talk had not changed his stance that negotiations could bring an end to the war.

“We both want to see this end and we both want to see a fair deal made,” Trump told Fox News at Trump Tower in New York. “The president wants it to end and he wants it to end as quickly as possible. He wants a fair transaction to take place,” he added, referring to Zelenskyy.

The meeting capped a tense week between the Ukrainian leader and Trump, which saw the pair trading barbs in the press and the Republican presidential candidate question U.S. aid for Kyiv’s fight to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Before the meeting, the former president had offered praise for Zelenskyy while insisting he wanted to help resolve the conflict.

“We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled and get it worked out,” Trump said. “It has to end at some point, it has to end. He’s gone through hell.”

The barbs and insults of the prior week hung heavy over the proceedings, though, with Zelenskyy offering a wry smile when asked by a reporter why he was sitting down with the former president.

But Trump largely praised the same Ukrainian leader he had spent recent days ridiculing on the campaign trail, repeatedly thanking him for his handling of the controversy over a phone call Trump made in 2019. Trump was impeached over the incident, in which he repeatedly pressured Zelenskyy to investigate political rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter.

“He could have grandstanded and played cute,” Trump said, lauding Zelenskyy. “He was like a piece of steel. He said President Trump did nothing wrong.”

Zelenskyy detailed his peace plan — which he also presented Thursday at the White House to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in this year’s election.

“This war shouldn’t have been started,” Zelenskyy said after their meeting. “Putin killed so many people and of course we need to do everything we can to pressure him to stop this war and he is in our territory.”

Trump insisted his relationship with Putin could bring a swift end to the war.

“We have a very good relationship and I also, as you know, have a very good relationship with President Putin and I think if we win I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

Trading barbs

Trump had stepped up his criticism of Zelenskyy in recent days, deriding the wartime leader as the “greatest salesman in history” for convincing the U.S. to provide billions in military assistance to help Kyiv.

“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now,” Trump said at a campaign event on Wednesday, berating the Ukrainian leader and accusing him of “making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me.”

Zelenskyy also rankled the Trump campaign after a visit to swing-state Pennsylvania, where he stopped at a munitions plant to thank workers and make his case for sustained military aid from the U.S. and allies, and met with Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro.

But on Friday, Trump used the meeting as an excuse to criticize Harris, whom he blamed for conditions in Ukraine.

Harris also used her meeting with Zelenskyy to excoriate Trump — while not mentioning him by name — saying that pressure to force Ukraine to the negotiating table would compel Kyiv to give up sovereign territory and forgo security ties with other nations — conditions she said Putin seeks.

“They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender,” Harris told reporters as she stood aside Zelenskyy on Thursday.

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