Donald Trump has said he will meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy after criticising the Ukrainian president on the campaign trail and expressing doubts about Ukraine’s ability to beat Russia.
Trump, the Republican candidate in the November 5 United States presidential election, said he would meet Zelenskyy in New York on Friday.
The announcement came just hours after US President Joe Biden unveiled more than $8bn in new military assistance for Kyiv and after Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival in November, met Zelenskyy and promised her “unwavering” support.
Trump has questioned the scale of US backing for Ukraine and at a campaign rally this week said the country should have made a deal with Russia when Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On Thursday, he repeated his claims that he could secure a peace deal.
“President Zelenskyy has asked to meet with me, and I will be meeting with him tomorrow morning at around 9:45 in Trump Tower,” Trump told reporters in New York.
Asked by a reporter if Ukraine might have to cede territory to reach an agreement with Moscow – a nonstarter for Kyiv – Trump did not rule it out.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
Shortly before Trump’s comments, Harris pledged support for Ukraine and – in a veiled reference to Trump – said those who would have Ukraine swap land for peace with Russia were supporting “proposals of surrender”.
Harris was speaking alongside Zelenskyy at the White House, their seventh meeting and the third this year.
Trump and Zelenskyy have not met in person since Trump’s term as US president ended in 2021, although they spoke on the phone in July.
Earlier in the week, Trump looked poised to snub Zelenskyy’s request for a meeting.
The Ukrainian leader had said before travelling to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly that he hoped to present his “victory plan” to win the war with Russia to Biden, Harris and Trump.
But he upset Trump’s campaign after visiting a munitions factory over the weekend in the battleground state of Pennsylvania with that state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and a Harris ally.
Trump has continued with his criticisms of the Ukrainian president on the campaign trail. He said on Monday that Zelenskyy wanted Harris to win the election, and on Wednesday, he called the Eastern European nation “dead” and “demolished”.
The Republican also hinted he was upset with Zelenskyy’s recent comments to The New Yorker magazine in which Ukraine’s leader said he believed Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war”.
When asked about those comments by a reporter at the news conference, Trump said: “I do believe I disagree with him. He doesn’t know me.”
