Between a war and an election, Zelensky watches Trump waffle on

New York: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wore a grim expression as he stood next to former US president Donald Trump. The two leaders appeared briefly before their meeting in Trump Tower, their first in five years.

As Zelensky stood silently beside him, Trump presented the Russia-Ukraine war as one that both sides wanted to end, including its instigator, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with former US president Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York.Credit: AP

Trump did not fault the Russian leader for the invasion or for the illegal seizure of territory or for the thousands of Ukrainians he has bombed out of existence. Instead, he described the situation as if it were a dispute between two parties operating in good faith that could be resolved in a “fair deal”, but only if he returns to the White House.

“I’ve been saying that I believe if I win, we’re going to have a very fair, and I think, actually rather rapid deal,” Trump said. The war, he added, “should stop, and the president wants it to stop. I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop. And that’s a good combination. So we want to have a fair deal for everybody.”

Zelensky is in a difficult position with Trump. He knows Trump has a solid chance of winning in November and that if he does, he will immediately face a decision over how much support to give to Ukraine and what posture the United States will take in the conflict.

But as the US election nears, Ukrainian officials have grown increasingly concerned about Trump’s claims that he would end the war swiftly if re-elected, fearing this could result in Ukraine being forced to cede significant territory to Russia.

Breaking with his self-professed neutrality, Zelensky questioned Trump’s plan to end the war in a recent interview with The New Yorker. He also described Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who has been deeply critical of previous US aid packages for Ukraine, as “too radical”.

“My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how,” Zelensky said in that interview. “With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it, the less you understand.”

The comments to the magazine infuriated the Trump team so much that the Trump Tower meeting almost didn’t happen.

As he stood alongside Trump in New York, Zelensky was diplomatic but struggled to make clear where he thought the blame resided.

“This war shouldn’t be started, and I think that the problem that Putin killed so many people and, of course, we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war,” Zelensky said. “He is on our territory; that’s the most important to understand. He is on our territory, and how to stop the war to pressure him as we can. As we can — we have to do it.”

The two leaders had just spent roughly an hour together in the conference room on the 25th floor of Trump Tower. They were both in their usual uniforms. Trump wore dress shoes, a blue suit and a red tie. Zelensky was in work boots, cargo pants and an olive-green sweatshirt.

The last time they were together, in September 2019, Trump was in the middle of a scandal – one of the biggest of his presidency – over a phone call he had made to Zelensky in which he pressured the Ukrainian leader to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.

Now, only six weeks before election day, Zelensky had arrived as a wartime leader to shore up a shaky relationship.

Before their meeting, as they emerged from double doors together, Trump and Zelensky paused at the head of a large conference table to deliver brief remarks to reporters.

“I think that we can work out something that’s good for both sides,” Trump said, insisting that if he won the election, he would be able to end the war even before taking office on January 20.

Zelensky has previously expressed scepticism over Trump’s claims that he could rapidly end the war. And Trump’s public statements over the past two years have given the Ukrainians plenty of reasons to be concerned. He initially described the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Putin as an act of “genius”. And he has repeatedly insisted that he could resolve the conflict within 24 hours – a message that some in Ukraine take to mean that he would pressure them to capitulate to Russia.

“We have common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped,” Zelensky said as he stood beside Trump. “And Putin can’t win, and Ukraine has to prevail.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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