Trump, Zelensky meet in New York amid growing questions over US support for Ukraine

NEW YORK — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 reached,” Trump told Fox News alongside Zelenskyy after a 40-minute meeting. “The president wants this to end, 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 supply arms and weapons. funding its army as it attempts to repel 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 Biden’s son, Hunter, who served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian company. gas company.

At the time Trump asked for this “favor,” he was withholding $400 million in military aid to 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 stood out 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.