US presidential candidate Donald Trump hailed a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “very good” after the two spoke by telephone for the first time since 2021 on Friday.
Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said he had congratulated the former US president on becoming the Republican Party nominee for the US presidential election in November and condemned the “horrific” attempt on his life last Saturday.
The Ukrainian president wrote that he stressed to Trump the “vital importance” of bipartisan US support for Ukraine in ensuring the country’s “freedom and independence” as it continued to resist Russia’s invasion.
He also hinted at a future meeting with Trump, saying that he had agreed to meet with the former US president in person to discuss how to “make peace fair and truly lasting”.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he appreciated the fact that Zelensky had reached out to him and repeated his confident claim that, as the “next President of the United States”, he would “bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families”.
“Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity”, Trump said, echoing his repeated boast that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours should he be elected in November.
Ukrainian Presidential spokesperson Serhiy Nykyforov later told Ukrainian television that Trump had urged Zelensky during the call “not to believe the fake news that his victory could be advantageous to Russia”, while Zelensky had warned the US presidential candidate not to trust world leaders who tried to “explain or justify” Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
Experts have expressed fears that Trump’s victory in the upcoming US presidential election would mean an end to American military aid for Ukraine, with reports emerging recently that Trump would stop the supply of US arms to Kyiv unless it agreed to enter peace talks with Moscow.
