Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was critical of former President Donald Trump, who he alleged “doesn’t know” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian leader said in a CNN interview this week that he “can’t understand how Donald Trump can be on the side of Putin,” adding, “It’s unbelievable.”
Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, has said he believes he could quickly negotiate an end of the war that leaves both sides satisfied, but he has provided few details as to how he would do that.
“I think Donald Trump doesn’t know Putin,” Zelensky said. “I know he met him … but he never fought with Putin. [The] American Army never fought with the army of Russia. Never. … I have a better understanding,” he said.
“I don’t think he understands that Putin will never stop,” the Ukrainian leader added.
In July, Trump said he would pressure Putin into making a deal by threatening to provide Ukraine with significant amounts of military aid while also threatening Zelensky with not providing Ukraine with any aid to push him to the negotiating table.
“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,” the former president 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.”
The Biden administration has pressed Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s supplemental funding request, which was issued back in October and included more than $60 billion for Ukraine, but negotiations remain stalled in Washington. House Republicans have refused to pass the bill, including torpedoing a bipartisan agreement at Trump’s insistence, that would’ve included the aid sought by the administration and supported by Democrats in exchange for concessions regarding U.S. southern border policies.
Biden, in an effort to get it passed, will meet with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday.
The Defense Department last provided military aid to Ukraine in late December 2023.
Zelensky acknowledged that he doesn’t expect Ukraine to have “any new success” on the battlefield without U.S. aid, adding that “success forward will depend on” the United States.
Ukrainian forces have begun feeling the impacts of the lack of U.S. military aid and had to withdraw from the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, providing Russia with some momentum on the front lines.
Zelensky predicted Russia could begin a new offensive as soon as in May.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week that Putin “clearly believes now is his best chance to bring Ukraine to its knees.”
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Trump, during his first term, was impeached in the Democratic-led House of Representatives for threatening to uphold aid to Ukraine in exchange for a politically motivated investigation into Biden. Biden’s son Hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian company and has been accused of using his connection to his father for lucrative international business deals.
The Senate acquitted Trump in the impeachment case, and he finished out his term.