(CNN) – Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet at Trump Tower this Friday morning, according to Trump, giving the Ukrainian leader a chance to make a personal overture to a GOP presidential candidate openly skeptical of the attendance. continued US security policy for Ukraine against Russia.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he would sit down with Zelensky, a meeting that had seemed murky earlier in the week following comments from both leaders critical of the other.
Still, it’s unclear whether Zelensky can say anything to convince Trump to change his stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and American security aid. Friday’s meeting comes at a crucial time for Zelensky ahead of the US elections in November. This week he has tried to convince the Biden administration that his country can still win the war, as long as the United States and other countries significantly and quickly increase military aid.
Trump repeatedly complained about the funding the U.S. provided to Ukraine and said he would quickly end the war between the two sides, which began with Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022. Zelensky said this week that Trump doesn’t know how to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“I look forward to seeing it,” Trump said Thursday. “We’ll see – I think I disagree with him – well, he doesn’t know me. “I don’t agree, but I will say this: I think I will be able to reach an agreement between President Putin and President Zelensky quite quickly.”
Zelensky met this Thursday at the White House with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kahala Harris, and the Democratic candidate took advantage of the appearance to draw a marked contrast with Trump on Ukraine.
“There are some in my country who would, on the contrary, force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and who would demand that Ukraine give up security relations with other nations,” Harris said.
Zelensky’s long-awaited meeting with Trump a day after visiting the White House puts him back in the middle of a heated US political campaign, five years after Zelensky became embroiled in another domestic US political storm.
In fact, it was just over five years ago that Trump last met in person with Zelensky, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The meeting came amid a Democratic investigation to impeach Trump for denying Zelensky a White House visit and U.S. aid to Ukraine while Trump was trying to get the Ukrainians to announce an investigation into then-presidential candidate Biden.
Trump would eventually be impeached by House Democrats for pressuring Zelensky to investigate Biden. The Ukrainian president, meanwhile, finally got an Oval Office meeting – with Biden – in September 2021.
