Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged Donald Trump to provide specifics on the former president’s claims that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a single day.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Zelensky said Trump should “publicly share his idea now, not waste time, not lose people, and say, ‘My formula is to stop the war and stop all this tragedy and stop Russian aggression.” He added that if Trump’s alleged plan doesn’t include pushing Russian soldiers from all Ukrainian land, “he’s not presenting the global idea of peace.”
Trump has repeatedly bragged in interviews that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day if he was still in office by convincing Russian president Vladimir Putin to come to a peace agreement. However, Trump has not provided any details on how he’d do it.
Zelensky cast suspicion on Trump’s claims that he could strike a “fair deal” between the two countries, saying he would not agree to a deal that involves Ukraine giving up land to appease Russia. “So [if] the idea is how to take the part of our territory and to give Putin, that is not the peace formula,” he added.
Zelensky’s comments came the same day he spoke to the United Nations General Assembly during his diplomatic trip to the United States. During the speech, he accused Russia of committing genocide against the Ukrainian people, kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children, and weaponizing a food shortage and energy production.
On Thursday, he’s expected to meet with congressional leaders and with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., to ask for more financial and military aid to help Ukraine in its counteroffensive.
Trump said earlier this year that he could help negotiate a decisive end to the 19-month-long war “within 24 hours.”
“It has to be done from the office of the president, and you have to get them both in a room, and there are things you can say to each one of them — which I won’t reveal now — which will guarantee this war will end immediately. They have to do it,” Trump told the Right Side Broadcasting Network in February.
In a Fox News interview in July, Trump boasted about his good working relationships with both Zelensky and Putin.
“I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well, even better. And I had a good relationship, very good with both of them,” he said. “I would tell Zelensky, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day. One day.”
Most recently, Trump said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he would make a “fair deal for everybody.” He said he would not allow Putin to keep any Ukrainian territories when pressed about the possibility.
Russia launched the war in Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive in June.