Trump touts strong relationships with Zelensky – and Putin – in awkward exchange

Trump has frequently implied that he would cut defense aid to Ukraine as a way to force a settlement to the war

Donald Trump boasted of a “very good relationship” with both Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin on Friday as he hosted the Ukrainian leader for a meeting at his New York City skyscraper.

The former president also repeated a bizarre boast that he could, if re-elected in November, negotiate an end to the nearly three-year Russian war against Ukraine.

Trump, who was impeached in 2019 for using American defense assistance to pressure Zelensky to launch sham investigations into President Joe Biden and his son, was being briefed on Kyiv’s latest plan for victory against Putin.

“We have a very good relationship,” he told reporters as he stood with Zelensky. “And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

Zelensky quickly interjected: “I hope we have more good relations between us.”

Zelensky said he and Trump share a “common view that the war ... has to be stopped, and Putin can’t win and Ukrainians have to prevail.”

“And I want to discuss with you the details of our plan,” he added.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower, Friday 27 September in New York (AP)

For his part, Trump said he and Zelensky have had “a great relationship,” citing Zelensky’s decision to deny that Trump had exerted any pressure on him during the July 2019 phone call in which he’d linked sending Javelin anti-tank missiles to Zelensky’s announcement of investigations into the Bidens.

“So we're going to sit down just discuss it, and if we have a win, I think long before January 20, before I would take the presidency ... I think that we can work out something that's good for both sides. It's time,” he said.

Trump had previously cancelled plans to meet with the Ukrainian leader after Zelensky sparked GOP outrage by visiting the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in the battleground state of Pennsylvania over the weekend.

He reversed course late Thursday after Zelensky’s meeting with Harris, during which the Democratic presidential nominee told Zelensky that her support for Kyiv’s defense is “unwavering.”

In what appeared to be a veiled swipe at Trump and his Republican allies, Harris admitted to Zelensky that there are “some” in the US “who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations.”

“These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear: They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” she said.

Zelensky has been in the United States for the UN General Assembly, where on Wednesday he warned world leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to “break the Ukrainian spirit” by targeting his country’s energy infrastructure. He also cautioned against accepting purported peace deals that would be negotiated without Ukraine having a say.

“Any parallel or alternative attempts to seek peace are, in fact, efforts to achieve an out instead of an end to the war,” he said, adding later that he was skeptical of the “true interest” behind a recent push by China and Brazil to foster an end to the conflict.

“When some propose alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles, it not only ignores the interests and suffering of Ukrainians ... it not only ignores reality, but also gives Putin the political space to continue the war,” he said.

Earlier in the week, Zelensky also toured a Pennsylvania plant where munitions destined for his armed forces are being made. That visit drew anger from Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called for Zelensky to fire the Ukrainian ambassador to the US in response. Johnson’s outrage was supposedly due to no Republicans being invited along to the tour of the plant, though White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed it as a “political stunt” by the GOP at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.