Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News that former President Donald Trump reassured him that Washington will maintain its support for Kiev should he return to the White House.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump made the remarks when the two met last week. “I don’t know what will be after [the] elections and who will be the president … But I’ve got from Donald Trump very direct information that he will be on our side, that he will support Ukraine,” he said.
Last week, Zelensky traveled to the US and met with Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden to present Ukraine’s “victory plan.” The Wall Street Journal reports that senior US and European officials say the proposal contains no clear path to victory for Ukraine.
The plan was described as offering nothing new, and repackaged several old requests for more weapons and permission to use them in Russia. “I’m unimpressed, there’s not much new there,” one official told WSJ.
While Democrats have targeted Trump as an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin and not supportive enough of Ukraine, the former president has supported sending arms to Ukraine. During his term in the Oval Office, Trump authorized arms transfers to Kiev, something his predecessor Barack Obama refused to do out of fear of crossing Moscow’s redlines.
Earlier this year, a massive $60 billion aid package for Ukraine was stalled in Congress. Several key figures in the debate report that Trump broke the deadlock when he threw his support behind the aid.
Although Trump has claimed he would end the war if elected in November, he has not outlined a plan for accomplishing that. Instead, he has repeatedly stated the 2022 invasion would not have occurred if he had been president. Trump also insisted on Wednesday that Zelensky should have made a peace deal with Putin shortly after the war began.
