By Kanishka Singh and Gram Slattery
(Reuters) -Donald Trump said on Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wanted the Democrats to win the 2024 U.S. election, in which the former president faces Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.
The Republican presidential candidate’s statement on the campaign trail contrasts with the line adopted by some of his allies, who have argued that Ukraine would welcome Trump back as only he – in their telling – has the acumen to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
“I think Zelenskiy is the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with 60 billion dollars,” Trump said at a rally in western Pennsylvania. “He wants them to win this election so badly, but I would do differently – I will work out peace.”
Zelenskiy and Harris’ campaign had no immediate reaction to Trump’s remarks, and Trump gave no details of his peace plan, beyond reiterating he would call Putin and Zelenskiy and urge them to work out an accord, should he win the Nov. 5 election.
Zelenskiy, in the U.S. to attend the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly, said on Monday decisive action by the United States now could hasten the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine next year.
While Trump said last week that he would “probably” meet with Zelenskiy while he was in the country, no meeting has been set, according to people close to the former president.
Over the weekend, Zelenskiy visited a weapons factory in Pennsylvania alongside Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, a Harris ally, a move that angered some Trump associates, given that the visit occurred in an electoral battleground.
Americans of Eastern European descent – including Ukrainian-Americans and Polish-Americans – have become a sought-after voting bloc for both campaigns, particularly in Pennsylvania, which hosts significant Polish and Ukrainian populations.
Washington and its allies have provided a multi-billion dollar assistance program to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, while also imposing several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.
Trump has consistently described U.S. aid to Ukraine as a waste of money and has declined to say he wants Ukraine to win. While Trump and Zelenskiy talked over the phone in July, they have not talked in person since Trump’s 2017-2021 term.
Zelenskiy has previously said he cannot predict what Trump would do if he won in November, but hoped the Republican would maintain U.S. military support for Ukraine.
In a July interview with the BBC, Zelenskiy said working with Trump would be “hard work, but we are hard workers.”
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, uprooted millions more and devastated Ukrainian towns and cities.
Putin says peace talks can begin only if Kyiv abandons swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine to Russia and drops its NATO membership ambitions. Zelenskiy has called repeatedly for a withdrawal of all Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Gram Slattery in Washington; Additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Linda Kelly; Editing by Stephen Coates and Sonali Paul)
