Zelenskiy challenges Trump to reveal plans for ending war
The former US president has boasted that he’ll end the war by the time he’s inaugurated in January
UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Donald Trump should come forward with his plan to quickly end the war with Russia, warning that any proposal must avoid violating the nation’s sovereignty.
“If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelenskiy said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Kyiv on Wednesday (Jul 3). “If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood – we want to be ready for this, we want to know.”
The former US president, who leads in polls over President Joe Biden ahead of the November election, has boasted that he’ll end the war by the time he’s inaugurated in January. In the televised debate last week, Trump decried the billions of dollars spent on Ukraine’s defence, saying that Kyiv is “not winning the war.”
In a nearly hour-long interview, the Ukrainian leader lamented the delays in weapons deliveries from Western allies and said he was “potentially ready” to meet with Trump to hear his team’s proposals.
“They can’t plan my life and life of our people and our children,” he said. “We want to understand whether in November we will have the powerful support of the US, or will be all alone.”
The Ukrainian leader has had a fraught relationship with Trump, who during his presidency consistently accused Zelenskiy of corruption and soon after the former comedian’s 2019 election leaned on him to investigate allegations against Biden – a move that triggered his first impeachment.
Zelenskiy also challenged the notion that Kyiv is losing, refuting the term “deadlock” to describe the conflict. He said Kyiv’s forces are better positioned in terms of manpower than they were months ago and a new counteroffensive is a matter of arming its brigades. BLOOMBERG
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