US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants Democrats to win the 2024 US elections, where Trump is running against Vice President Kamala Harris, Suspilne reports.
According to Reuters, Trump also promised that if he wins the election, he will contact Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy to urge them to reach an agreement to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
I think Zelenskyy is the best salesman in history. Every time he comes to the country, he gets 60 billion dollars, – Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania.
He also added that “Zelenskyy wants them (Democrats – ed.) to win this election so badly, but I will do something different – I will make peace”.
The Zelenskyy and Harris campaigns have not yet responded to Trump’s comments, and Trump himself has not provided details of his peace plan. Polls show a tight race between Trump and Harris.
Zelenskyy arrived in the United States on Sunday to attend the UN General Assembly sessions and called on his partners to help achieve a “common victory for a real just peace”.
Western partners, including the United States, have provided Ukraine with multibillion-dollar aid since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
Trump repeatedly described US aid to Ukraine as a waste of money and avoided expressing support for Ukraine’s victory. Although Trump and Zelenskiy spoke on the phone in July, they have not met in person since Trump’s 2017-2021 presidential term.
Zelenskyy has previously said that he could not predict how Trump would act if he won, but hoped the Republican would maintain military support for Ukraine.
In a July interview with the BBC, Zelenskyy said that working with Trump would be “hard work, but we are used to hard work”.
