- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected Trump’s secret plan to end the war in Russia.
- According to the Washington Post, Trump supports Ukraine ceding territory to Russia to end the war.
- Zelenskyy said such a suggestion was “a very primitive idea.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that he would not accept any plans to cede territory to Russia in an effort to end the war, rejecting an idea that former President Donald Trump reportedly favored.
“If the deal is about just giving up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea,” Zelensky said in an interview with Axel Springer media. “I think if he really has a formula and an approach to quickly end the war. I need very strong arguments. I don’t need a fantastic idea. I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake.”
Zelensky has long refused a land swap to end the war, but his renewed opposition comes after the Washington Post reported that Trump privately favored a long-term deal that would force Ukraine to cede control of the Crimea and the Donbass border region with Russia.
The former president publicly boasted that his negotiating prowess would allow him to negotiate an end to the war within a day of taking office. If Trump were to champion such a plan, it would mark a major shift from President Joe Biden’s foreign policy.
In a statement to the Post, Trump’s campaign cast doubt on any claims that the former president formulated a way to end the war.
“Any speculation about President Trump’s plan comes from anonymous, uninformed sources who have no idea what is happening or what is going to happen,” campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the Post. “President Trump is the only one talking about stopping the massacres.”
Zelensky warned that in negotiations over the end of the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted.
“We are dealing with Putin. Everything he has said so far, he has done differently,” Zelensky said. “That means we can’t trust him. I mean, the idea must be such that it leaves no room for Putin. No room to carry out his plans. Do you understand? He must be put at the foot of the wall, so to speak., so he can’t improvise. We can agree on all sorts of things. The question is whether he sticks to the agreements.
Trump pushed Republican lawmakers to reject a bipartisan $95.3 billion Senate aid package that would provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Zelenskyy said he remains optimistic that Congress will pass additional aid, but it remains unclear how President Mike Johnson will move forward. Some Republicans, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have threatened to oust Johnson if he decides to give more aid to Ukraine.
Trump has raised the possibility of providing a loan to Ukraine, although he declined in May to say during a CNN town hall whether he wanted Russia or Ukraine to win the war.
His position put him at odds with figures such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who favored a more interventionist Reagan-era foreign policy. McConnell made the fight for aid to Ukraine one of the last major focal points of his decades in Congress.
Zelensky told Axel Springer that Trump was interested in inviting the Ukrainian leader to visit his country. Biden went there in February 2023.
“We said we would like Donald Trump to come to Ukraine, see everything with his own eyes and draw his own conclusions,” Zelensky said. “In any case, I am ready to meet with him and discuss this issue. This issue is very important to us.”
businessinsider
