The Ukrainian leader has downplayed the US Republican candidate’s pledge to secure a peace deal as a typical campaign promise
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has dismissed US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s promise to immediately end the conflict with Russia, calling it typical election rhetoric that is unlikely to materialize.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that if he returns to the White House, he would secure a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev “within 24 hours.”
“Just get it done. All right. Negotiate a deal,” he said during last week’s presidential debate with his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris retorted that Trump was planning to “just give up” on Ukraine, and went on to list her own efforts to secure military support for Kiev.
In an interview with CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday, Zelensky played down Trump’s words.
“My position is that election period and election messages are election messages. Sometimes they are not very real,” he said, adding that while Trump’s remarks “can make us, all our people nervous,” a conversation with the former president two months ago left a very different impression.
“I had a phone call with Donald Trump, and he said that he’s very supportive and we had a good conversation,” he told the host.
In April 2022, Kiev and Moscow were close to finalizing a peace agreement in Istanbul, but the talks were broken off due to an intervention by Ukraine’s Western backers.
Since then, Kiev has repeatedly stated that any talks should be based on Zelensky’s ten-point peace plan, which states that Russia must relinquish territories held by Ukraine prior to 2014. Moscow has rejected the idea as detached from reality.
Last week, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance suggested that Trump’s potential peace proposal would probably involve creating a demilitarized zone around the current line of contact and guaranteeing Ukraine’s neutrality, ideas that align with Russia’s main objectives.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, however, cast doubt on achieving a quick resolution to the conflict, saying that “anyone, who steps forward and says they could solve the Ukraine war in one day from the outside” needs to be questioned as to “whose side are they going to be solving it on.”
Moscow has ruled out negotiations while Ukrainian forces remain in Russia’s Kursk Region, citing war crimes committed during the incursion in early August.
Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would order an immediate ceasefire if Ukraine were to abandon its NATO ambitions and territorial claims.
