Volodymyr Zelensky, who received a new aid package from Joe Biden and the support of Kamala Harris in Washington on Thursday, will have a much more delicate meeting with Donald Trump on Friday, who is very critical of the massive American aid to Ukraine, writes AFP.
“As you know, Zelensky asked to meet. I will meet with him tomorrow morning around 09:45 at Trump Tower”, in New York, the former president and Republican candidate for the White House announced on Thursday.
“I think I will be able to quickly conclude an agreement between President Putin and President Zelensky,” he said, assuring that he does not want a “surrender” of Ukraine, as his Democratic rival for the White House, Kamala Harris, accuses him.
Volodymyr Zelensky will come to their meeting assured of the support of the current administration, but obviously worried about American aid in the event of Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 elections, which are announced to be very close.
“Russia is not going to win,” Joe Biden said Thursday from the Oval Office.
To “help Ukraine win this war”, he had announced a little earlier an “increase in security assistance” – but without the green light hoped for by Kiev to launch long-range missiles made in the United States towards Russia.
“My support for the Ukrainian people is unwavering,” Vice-President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said during a separate meeting with the Ukrainian president.
“There are people in my country who would like to force Ukraine to abandon large areas of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine declare itself neutral, and who would demand that Ukraine renounce military relations with other countries. These proposals are the same as Putin’s and are not peace proposals. These are proposals for capitulation, which is dangerous and irresponsible,” she added.
The target of these statements is clear: former President Donald Trump, Republican candidate for the White House, who has strongly attacked Volodymyr Zelensky in recent days, accusing him of obstructing an “agreement” to end the war.
According to the American press, the former president did not appreciate an interview given by Volodymyr Zelensky to the New Yorker magazine – in which the Ukrainian head of state stated that Donald Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop this war”.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelenskiy,” denounced Donald Trump during a campaign rally on Wednesday.
“Every time he came to our country, he left with 60 billion dollars, I think he is the best trader on the planet,” the former president quipped.
“This war can be won and a just peace can be concluded, but only with the United States”, pleaded the Ukrainian head of state, who came to Washington to present his “victory plan”.
Joe Biden announced that on October 12, a high-level summit will be held in Germany with 50 countries allied to Ukraine.
The 81-year-old Democrat, a major architect of Western support for Ukraine since its invasion by Russia in February 2022, decided on Thursday to grant yet another $8 billion military aid package.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
