Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes if former President Donald Trump is elected in November, then he will make a peace deal with Russia. Trump has previously claimed he will end the war if reelected but has not detailed how he will achieve that.
In an interview with the Guardian, Zelensky said if Trump is reelected, he will end US “support, weapons and money” shipments to Ukraine. He believes a reelected Trump will make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.
On the campaign trail, Trump asserted he could end the war within 24 hours of becoming President. He also pledged to make deals and improve relations with Russia during his 2016 campaign. However, as president, Trump failed to follow through on this promise and significantly escalated Western tensions with Russia.
Zelenskly claimed Trump would become a “loser president” for ending the war and would make America “very weak.” While details on Trump’s proposal remain vague, the former president has called for Ukraine to cede territory controlled by Russia to Moscow. Zelenskly and President Biden maintain that Ukraine must be allowed to recapture all its territory.
However, Kiev’s prospects for restoring Ukraine’s post-Cold War borders appear dim. Moscow has annexed five regions of Ukraine and says the land will not be returned. Additionally, Ukraine’s offensive attempt to regain some of that territory failed last summer. Currently, Russian forces are on the move and conquering more territory in eastern Ukraine.
Before the war, and during its early months, Kiev and its Western backers could have inked a deal with Moscow that preserved nearly all of Ukraine’s territory in exchange for neutrality, a pledge that Ukraine would not join NATO. Zelesnly was urged by Washington and London to forgo diplomacy and attempt to vanquish Russian forces from Ukrainian land.
Passing on the deal has come at high costs for Ukraine. Kiev has lost hundreds of thousands of men in the war. Additionally, Russia has seized control over most of eastern and southern Ukraine, and it says that territory will not be returned to Kiev’s control.
