“I will meet him at 9:45 tomorrow morning at Trump Tower,” former US President Donald Trump said at a press conference in New York on the afternoon of September 26.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump posted a message from Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to the United States, forwarding President Zelensky’s request for a meeting to his TruthSocial platform.
“Dear Donald Trump, I hope you are well. I remember our recent phone call was really good. All of us in Ukraine want to end this war with a just peace. And we know that without the United States this cannot be achieved. That is why we must try to understand each other and stay in close contact,” President Zelensky wrote.
“I always speak with great respect about everything related to you. That is how it should be,” the Ukrainian leader added, adding that he really looked forward to meeting Mr. Trump.
It was previously reported that Mr Trump refused to meet Mr Zelensky because he was upset with the Ukrainian leader’s visit to a US ammunition factory in Pennsylvania over the weekend with Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro.
The visit even prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, to write a letter to Mr. Zelensky asking him to fire the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States for helping to organize the trip. However, the White House insisted that Mr. Zelensky’s factory visit had no political purpose.
The former US president confirmed the meeting with Mr Zelensky after he criticized the Ukrainian leader for refusing to negotiate with Russia and occasionally had harsh words for Mr Trump.
“The president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s saying some very nasty things about the president that you love, me,” Trump said on September 25 at a campaign rally in North Carolina.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a deal-breaker: Mr. Zelensky. There is no deal he can make. You have a country that is being destroyed, that cannot be rebuilt,” he added.
A day earlier, Mr Trump had vowed to disengage the US from the conflict in Ukraine if re-elected. He also suggested that Mr Zelensky wanted the Democrats to win the upcoming presidential election and called him “the greatest salesman on earth”.
President Zelensky is visiting New York, attending a meeting of the United Nations Security Council and meeting with US officials. On this occasion, he will present to US President Joe Biden and two presidential candidates Ukraine’s “victory plan” in the conflict with Russia.
