Former US president Donald Trump met the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York on 27 September, 2024. The two leaders discussed the war between Ukraine and Russia, which is now entering its third year without an end in sight. They explained their vision of what happened since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump vowed to make his efforts to mediate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia if re-elected president of the United States.
Trump also noted his personal relationships with both Zelensky and the Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: ‘I think if we win, we’re going to get it resolved very quickly’ and suggesting that some sort of deal could be made that would be satisfactory to all sides. Trump also repeated his claim that the war could have been avoided if he had been in the White House when the Russian invasion took place in 2022. Zelensky accepted the former president’s assessment that he was willing to negotiate a deal with Putin, but pushed back against this suggestion and instead insisted that Ukraine would prevail while Putin could never win. The support of the US is essential for Ukraine to win, Zelensky maintained.
Background of the Meeting
The meeting in person, five years after the last time Trump and Zelensky met, has long been awkward and, most recently, took the centre stage in Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019 when he allegedly tried to extort the Ukrainian president for military aid by pressuring him to investigate his political rival Joe Biden – although that conflict does not seem to have seeped through to the present meeting, which carried itself on largely diplomatic terms.
Zelensky had been in the US just a few days earlier, visiting both the White House and other US government offices to push for additional military and financial aid to keep Ukraine’s army fighting against Russia. He was alarmed by the 2024 US election. He also knows that whatever happens in the next year, the outcome of the war will be influenced by America’s political leadership. ‘I think we have a common vision that this war in Ukraine has to be stopped, and Putin could never win… And that we have to defeat this aggression of Russia.’
Trump’s Position on the War
For years, Trump has taken a harsh line on the US role in the Ukraine war. On the campaign trail, he’s questioned the continued flow of military aid to Kyiv in favour of a negotiated end to the conflict. He has argued that there would have been ‘a very good chance’ at a peace deal with Putin ‘that probably would have been a lot better’ than the war, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of displaced Ukrainians. ‘Now you look at a man like Zelensky and it’s like he’s been refusing to make a deal with Putin,’ Trump said this week. ‘I guess that’s okay. He probably doesn’t want to give back Crimea, which he really should. I think that if he went back and talked to the people of Ukraine – and I mean the Ukraine not just the people of Kyiv – I think they would want to make a deal.’
However, Trump’s criticism of Zelensky has not been limited to foreign policy. He has also reportedly claimed that Ukrainian president ‘walks away with $100 billion every time he comes to the United States’, a figure that has been debunked by numerous sources, including the Associated Press, which has reported that US assistance to Ukraine since the start of the war totals just over $56 billion. Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine is ‘stealing’ US resources reflects a growing trend among some Republicans who have grown increasingly critical of the continued flow of military aid to Kyiv.
Zelensky’s Response
Zelensky replied: ‘We understand after November we have to decide, and we hope with the strength of the United States we will be very strong, and we count on it.’ Zelensky pointed to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which then threatened the entire world. Zelensky has continued to highlight ‘Ukraine’s determination and will’ to win on the battlefield. He said that the West’s ongoing support was vital to do so.
International Reactions
In a meeting that went viral around the world, they were keen to observe how the US political landscape might change in the months ahead. The war has altered the landscape of global geopolitics. With NATO and the European Union firmly behind Ukraine, Russia also shows no signs of slowing down in its military exertions.
Political commentators suggest that the fate of the war in Ukraine could hinge on the outcome of the 2024 US election. While the Biden administration and most of the Democratic leadership have vowed to continue supporting Ukraine, the return of a Trumpian presidency would undoubtedly dramatically shift US foreign policy to negotiate with Russia instead of providing Ukraine with continued military aid.40†Sevastopol, capital of the Crimean peninsula and the most important port city of Russia.
With the war in Ukraine still raging, the meeting of Trump and Zelensky illustrates how much US leadership will influence the eventual outcome. Zelensky has continued to seek a victory on the battlefield against Russia or some form of Ukraine reconstruction, whereas Trump has positioned himself as a potential peace-broker who could cut a deal for a negotiated end to the conflict. How possible either of those are remains to be seen, but there will be one factor more than any other that will crystalize the US policy towards Ukraine in the coming years: who wins the election of 2024.
For further details, read more from Politico, Novaya Gazeta Europe, Associated Press, and Reuters.
