Donald Trump to meet Zelenskiy after criticizing Ukrainian leader

By Gram Slattery

(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday after criticizing him on the U.S. election campaign and expressing doubts about the U.S. ally’s ability to win its war against Russia.

Trump said Thursday they would meet at 9:45 a.m. (1:45 p.m. GMT) at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Although Trump and Zelenskiy spoke on the phone in July, this will be their first in-person meeting since Trump’s 2017-2021 term.

Zelenskiy, who is in the United States for the U.N. General Assembly, met Thursday with Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

While the Ukrainian leader was in Washington, Biden announced a new military aid package worth more than $8 billion, while Harris reaffirmed her support for kyiv and, in a veiled jab at Trump, accused him for not having defended the Eastern European ally.

Before leaving kyiv, Zelenskiy expressed his intention to present his “victory plan” for defeating Russia to Biden, Harris and Trump. But among his unspoken goals on Friday will likely be patching up his relationship with Trump, who has at times criticized Zelenskiy.

Over the weekend, Zelenskiy visited a munitions factory in Pennsylvania with that state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, a key Harris ally. The visit upended Trump’s campaign and angered some congressional Republicans who viewed the trip as a campaign stop, especially since Pennsylvania is an important battleground state expected to decide the U.S. election .

Trump, for his part, has stepped up his criticism of Zelenskiy in recent days. He said Monday that Zelenskiy wanted Harris to win the election, and on Wednesday he called the Eastern European nation “dead” and “demolished.”

Generally speaking, Trump has refused to say he wants Ukraine to win its war against Russia and has called U.S. aid to Ukraine a waste of money.

As recently as Thursday, people close to Trump and his campaign said a meeting seemed extremely unlikely, even though the former president apparently changed his mind during Zelenskiy’s stay in the country.

Meetings between presidential candidates and foreign leaders have taken place during previous election campaigns. In 2016, Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton both met with the leaders of Egypt, Japan and Ukraine at that year’s United Nations General Assembly.

But these meetings are nevertheless sensitive, to the extent that the law limits what candidates can say or discuss during such meetings.

The Logan Act of 1799 allowed Americans outside the government to meet with foreign officials, but it also limited their ability to negotiate American disputes.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Howard Goller)