Former President Donald Trump said he’ll meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower on Friday morning, after there was some doubt about whether the two would see each other while Zelenskyy was visiting the U.S.
Trump has been highly critical of funding to Ukraine and at times, Zelenskyy — an uneasy relationship that was made even less comfortable after the Ukrainian president announced a visit to an ammunition plant in battleground state Pennsylvania. House Speaker Mike Johnson called on Zelenskyy to fire his ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, over the Pennsylvania trip and its lack of Republicans present.
Zelenskyy has in turn been critical of Trump, saying the former U.S. president “doesn’t really know how to stop the war.” Trump frequently says Russia “would have never attacked Ukraine” if he was president.
Trump announced his Friday morning meeting with Zelenskyy to reporters in New York City Thursday.
“As you know, President Zelenskyy has asked to meet with me and I will be meeting with him tomorrow around 9:45 in Trump Tower,” Trump said.
Trump has frequently claimed that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine quickly, in as little as “a day.” CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns asked him what an end to the fighting would look like.
“I don’t want to tell you what that looks like,” he responded. He said of Ukraine that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “told me often it’s the apple of his eye.” Trump claimed he warned against invading Ukraine and said, “‘Vladimir, don’t even think about doing it.'”
Trump also told reporters of his meeting with Zelenskyy, “We’ll see what happens, but I believe I can work that out.” Asked whether Ukraine should cede land to Russia to end the war, Trump did not answer directly.
“Let’s get some peace,” he said. “We need peace. We need to stop the death and destruction. Don’t you think? Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Earlier Thursday, Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, a message purportedly from Zelenskyy requesting a face-to-face meeting with Trump while Zelenskyy would already be in New York.
Trump’s announcement that he would meet with Zelenskyy came shortly after that post.
Zelenskyy was in Washington on Thursday for meetings with top members of Congress, as well as President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
contributed to this report.
