Trump releases personal message from Zelensky pleading for meeting

Donald Trump revealed a personal call that Volodymyr Zelensky sent him for a meeting.

The Republican candidate took the unusual step of posting a message from Mr. Zelensky on his Truth Social account, with the apparent intention of giving the impression that the Ukrainian leader wanted to meet him.

In the message, Mr. Zelensky said he always speaks “with great respect” about Trump and maintains that the two men “must strive to understand each other and stay in close contact.”

He called for a meeting with Trump to take place Friday in New York, and hinted it was scheduled for Friday. Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Trump confirmed that he would meet with Mr. Zelensky the following day.

“In Ukraine, we all want to end this war with a just peace,” Mr. Zelensky wrote.

“And we know that without America, this is impossible to achieve. This is why we must strive to understand each other and stay in close contact.”

He added: “A few days ago we requested a meeting with you, and I really want to hear your thoughts directly and first-hand.

“You know I always speak with great respect about everything that concerns you, and that’s how it should be. I may be in New York on Friday, which would be a good time to meet.

“I think it is important for us to have personal contact and understand each other 100%.

“Let me know if you are in the city at the time. I would really like our meeting to take place, as part of our efforts to help us end this war justly.”

The message was delivered to Trump via Denys Sienik, deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

It is unusual for a behind-the-scenes conversation between two politicians to be revealed in public, especially by one of the interlocutors themselves.

Trump’s message comes amid heightened tensions between the two men and the former president’s increasingly critical speeches about Ukraine during the election campaign.

The rift between the two men could be exacerbated by Trump’s decision to publish the message, which will be interpreted as an attempt to embarrass Mr. Zelensky.

In a speech Wednesday in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump said Zelensky “refuses to make a deal” with Vladimir Putin and that the country has been “broken down” because of his refusal to negotiate.

He added: “The president of Ukraine is in our country and he is making nasty slanders about your favorite president: me. »

During the same speech, Trump said, “Any deal – the worst – would have been better than the one we have now,” adding “people are dead” and “the country is in rubble.”

The day before, at a rally in Georgia, Trump said: “Every time Zelensky comes to the United States, he leaves with $100 billion.

“I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world. But we’ll be stuck in this war if I’m not president. »

Mr. Zelensky has generally been complimentary of Trump in public, but said in a recent interview with The New Yorker that his “feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even though he thinks that ‘he knows how’.

He vigorously opposed negotiations with Russia that would result in a loss of Ukrainian territory in exchange for peace, and called JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, “too radical.”

Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine “in one day,” in a commitment that was later clarified by Mr. Vance to mean a territorial negotiation with Russia.

After Trump began publicly criticizing Mr Zelensky, congressional Republicans refused to meet with the Ukrainian president during his trip to Washington DC on Thursday.

Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, met with Mr. Zelensky at the White House.

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