Trump Meets With Zelenskyy, Says He ‘Learned a Lot’ but His Viewpoint Is Unchanged

‘We both want to see this end and we both want to see a fair deal made,’ Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 27 as the GOP presidential nominee reiterated his call for a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia.

The Eastern European nation has been fighting off Russia’s invasion since February 2022.

Trump said after the meeting that he “learned a lot” but has not changed his viewpoints about the war.

“We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal made, and it’s going to be fair,” the former president told reporters.

“And I think that’ll happen at the right time, I think it’s going to happen. [Zelenskyy] wants it to end and he wants it to end as quickly as possible. He wants a fair transaction to take place.”

The meeting, which was held at Trump Tower in New York City, came one day after Trump reiterated that he could broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, though he declined to describe it in detail.

Nonetheless, ahead of the meeting, Trump said it was “an honor” to be with Zelenskyy.

“He’s been through a lot. He’s been through a tremendous amount probably like nobody else, almost nobody else in history if you really get right down to it,” he told reporters.

Following the meeting, Zelenskyy said the war should not have happened in the first place.

“I think that the problem [is] that Putin killed so many people, and, of course, we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war, and he’s on our territory,” he told the press.

Zelenskyy said the United States can take the lead when it comes to negotiating a settlement.

Trump said another meeting with Zelenskyy “could very well happen.”

The GOP has soured on Ukraine in multiple instances.

While Trump has not been specific on what negotiations between Russia and Ukraine should entail, the GOP presidential nominee’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has called for a demilitarized zone in Ukraine.

“I think what this looks like is Trump sits down, he says to the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Europeans: ‘You guys need to figure out, what does a peaceful settlement look like?’ And what it probably looks like is the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine, that becomes like a demilitarized zone,” Vance said on the Sept. 13 episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show.”

This area would be “heavily fortified so the Russians don’t invade again,” he said, adding that a peace deal would include blocking Ukraine from joining NATO, which Kyiv is seeking to do as the alliance has said that it is not a matter of if but when Ukraine will join.

Zelenskyy rejected this idea, calling it a surrender.

“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice. This brings us back to the question of the cost and who shoulders it. The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable. But I do not consider this concept of his a plan, in any formal sense,” Zelenskyy told The New Yorker.

Zelenskyy went on to call Vance’s comments “an awful idea” as it would “make Ukraine shoulder the costs of stopping the war by giving up its territories.”

“This kind of scenario would have no basis in international norms, in U.N. statute, in justice. And it wouldn’t necessarily end the war, either. It’s just sloganeering,” he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a Sept. 25 letter to Zelenskyy to remove Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova over Zelenskyy touring an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania, a key state in the election, on Sept. 22. The factory has supplied ammunition to Ukraine. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a top surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, guided Zelenskyy on the tour. Johnson noted no Republicans were present as allegedly no Republicans were invited.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote.

“This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately.”

Johnson said that support for Ukraine is bipartisan but that Zelenskyy is testing the limits of GOP support.

“All foreign nations should avoid opining on or interfering in American domestic politics,” he wrote.

“Support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government.”

More Republicans than Democrats in Congress voted in April against giving supplemental assistance to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, who met with Zelenskyy on Sept. 26, announced steps this week to help Ukraine.

Biden announced on Sept. 27 that he had instructed the Defense Department to offset all congressionally allocated funding for Ukraine by the end of his term in January.

The United States, 30 other countries, and the European Union released a joint declaration on Sept. 25 reiterating support for Ukraine.

It stated that Russian assets would be frozen until Moscow ended its war and paid for the damage it had caused. It also includes a commitment to help Ukraine economically.

“Through our collective support for Ukrainian reconstruction and recovery, we will ensure that Russia fails in its objectives to subjugate Ukraine—and that Ukraine emerges from Russia’s war of aggression with a modernized, vibrant, inclusive society and innovative economy, resilient to Russian threats,” the declaration reads.

Biden announced on Sept. 26 that the United States and other countries will meet next month “to coordinate the efforts of the more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine in its defense.”