Trump, Zelensky meet in New York as election poses high stakes for U.S. support for Ukraine

NEW YORK (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Donald Trump on Friday, amid rising public tensions between the two over defending Ukraine against a Russian invasion and in the midst of the U.S. presidential election.

“We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal done,” Trump told Fox News, referring to the Russian-Ukrainian fighting as he stood alongside Zelensky after a meeting of 40 minutes. “The president wants this to stop, and he wants it to end as quickly as possible. He wants a fair transaction to take place.

Zelensky said the war should not have started and added that it was necessary to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and ensure peace for the families of those killed.

“We must do everything we can to put pressure on him to end this war. He is on our territory. This is the most important thing to understand. He is on our territory.

The meeting took place at a critical time in the war between Russia and Ukraine, in the run-up to the US elections. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, have taken very different approaches to Ukraine. Zelensky wants to maintain good relations with the United States, his country’s largest supplier of weapons and war money. But the future of that support would be uncertain if Trump wins the election.

Trump, who has touted his good relationship with Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has for months criticized U.S. support for Ukraine and ridiculed Zelensky as a “salesman” for having persuaded Washington to provide arms and funds to his army. as he tries to push back Moscow. On Friday, Trump discussed his first impeachment, which congressional Democrats pursued after asking Zelensky for a “favor”: that he investigate Joe Biden, now president, and Hunter, Biden’s son, who served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company. .

At the time Trump asked for this “favor,” he was withholding $400 million in military aid from Ukraine as it fought Russian-backed separatists on its eastern border. He was later acquitted of impeachment charges by a Republican-led Senate.

“He could have been cute and played cute,” Trump said. “And he didn’t do that. He said: “President Trump has done absolutely nothing wrong. » He said it loud and clear. »

Zelensky told reporters in October 2019, as Congress launched its impeachment inquiry, that there was “no blackmail” by Trump. He also told reporters, “I don’t want to interfere in the election in any way,” attempting to publicly and privately distance himself from U.S. domestic politics.

But the Associated Press later reported that, despite Zelensky’s denials, U.S. officials were aware that he felt pressure from the Trump administration to investigate Biden even before his phone call with Trump regarding the “favor”.

Friday’s meeting was almost unscheduled, although Zelensky’s office said something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, where he is making his speech final to the allies.

In an interview with The New Yorker published earlier this week, Zelenskyy suggested that Trump did not understand and was oversimplifying the conflict. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, was “too radical” and essentially pleaded for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories.”

Trump ripped into Zelensky and Ukraine twice this week. Speaking in North Carolina on Wednesday, he called Ukraine “demolished” and its people “dead.”

“Any deal – the worst – would have been better than the one we have now,” Trump said. “If they had made a bad deal, it would have been much better. They would have given up a little and everyone would be alive, every building would be built and every tower would age for another 2,000 years.

Meanwhile, Harris stood alongside Zelensky on Thursday and said Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly reach a deal to end the war were “not peace proposals” but ” proposals for capitulation. Trump said Thursday he was not advocating a capitulation.

As he prepared to sit down for Friday’s meeting, a reporter asked Trump if Ukraine could win the war and he responded, “Of course.” They could.

He said of Zelensky: “We have very good relations. And I also have very good relations, as you know, with President Putin. And if we win, I think we will solve the problem very quickly.”

Zelenskyy interrupted Trump’s remarks by saying, “I hope we will have better relations with each other.” » Before moving on to another question, Trump interjected to say “but, you know, it takes two to tango.”

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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Mascaro from Washington.