Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets Donald Trump after Republican backlash over US trip
Donald Trump said he will meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday, despite a Republican backlash against Ukraine’s president’s lobbying efforts in the US this week.
Zelenskyy has tried to appease US Republicans including Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who reacted furiously to the Ukrainian president’s flirtation with Democrats this week in an attempt to secure more support for Kyiv’s stance against Russia.
“I hate to see the carnage,” Trump said Thursday while declaring that he would “pretty quickly” reach a peace agreement between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The former Republican president added during a press conference in New York: “As you know, President Zelenskyy asked to meet with me and I will meet with him tomorrow morning at about 9:45 at Trump Tower.”
Trump’s comments came after Zelenskyy wrote to Trump requesting a meeting to discuss Ukraine’s pursuit of a “just peace.”
The Republican presidential candidate posted Zelenskyy’s letter on his social media platforms earlier on Thursday.
“You know, I always speak with great respect about everything that concerns you,” Zelenskyy wrote. “I really look forward to our meeting taking place as part of our efforts to end this situation. war legitimately.”
The exchange marked an effort by the Ukrainian leader to regain his footing after Trump and others expressed anger at Zelenskyy for focusing diplomacy on Democratic politicians in the midst of the election campaign America.
Anger erupted after the US announced another $8 billion aid package for Ukraine supported by the Republican Party.
The Republican backlash caused consternation in Kyiv, where Zelenskyy’s allies accused officials of botching the US trip at a crucial moment for Ukraine. Ukrainewhich includes lost land to the Russian army in the eastern Donbas region.
A former Ukrainian official said: “It seems like the Republicans are looking for every way to create a scandal, but we should have avoided giving them the opportunity. The Republican Party will still be strong in Washington. They can block everything.”
Ukraine’s president earlier on Thursday expressed gratitude to “Joe Biden, the United States Congress and their parties, Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans” for the aid. new subsidy.
“We have always appreciated the strong bipartisan support in the United States and among Americans for Ukraine’s legitimate cause of defeating Russian aggression,” he wrote on social media.
Trump lashed out at the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, accusing him of rejecting any negotiations with Russia and claiming that Zelenskyy had made “disparaging comments” about him.
Johnson asked Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, who organized Zelenskyy’s visit to a weapons factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he accompanied only Democrats, to resign. Pennsylvania is a swing state in Presidential election in November.
“The trip is clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Trump. Ukrainian religion.
Zelenskyy had intended to use his US trip to present his so-called winning plan for strengthening Ukraine’s military and diplomatic position vis-à-vis Biden, Trump and Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
He met with Harris and Biden at the White House on Thursday, where the vice president took implicit aim at Trump and his running mate JD Vance, implying that they would “force Ukraine to give up most” of its land. his belt and “demanded that Ukraine give up”. protect”.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, she added: “Those are proposals for surrender, which are dangerous and unacceptable.”
Trump on Thursday denied his vision of ending the war entails surrender.
“It’s not a surrender. . . My strategy is to save lives,” he said, adding that his message to Zelenskyy would be: “We need peace. We need to stop the death and destruction.”
The $8 billion package announced by the White House includes $2.4 billion in new assistance and $5.6 billion already earmarked for Ukraine and includes the first commitment for “common weapons” or glide bombs, which could be Used for long range attacks.
But the package falls short of the demands Zelenskyy presented to Biden later on Thursday. The United States has rejected Kiev’s repeated requests to use long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia, a key element of his plan.
Republican backlash to Zelenskyy’s US visit has sparked recriminations in Kyiv.
“Going to Scranton was a mistake,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “The president was let down by someone in the embassy or his office.”
“It’s better not to visit that time,” he added.
David Arakhamia, leader of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party in parliament, downplayed Trump’s comments, describing them as “campaign rhetoric and manipulation, which everyone the person doing it”.
He admitted that the timing of Zelenskyy’s visit was not very favorable but said the Ukrainian leader needed to put pressure on him for more funding.
“Whatever you do, you risk becoming part of the electoral debate,” Arakhamia said. “But we can’t just wait until the election is over.”
A person close to Zelenskyy said the “image” of his visit to Scranton looked grim in retrospect and blamed the Ukrainian ambassador for “misjudgment.”
But Arakhamia defended Markarova, calling her one of Ukraine’s most effective envoys. “Why would we fire her just because Chairman Johnson doesn’t like her? Honestly, that’s very rude.”
Additional reporting by Steff Chavez in Washington
