Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that he hopes his country can handle former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and is “not afraid,” Bloomberg reported.
Zelensky made his comments after a disastrous two weeks for current President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, which began with a poor performance in a debate with President Trump and sparked rumors that Zelensky had begun to worry about Biden’s health. During his most recent meeting with Zelensky, at NATO’s annual summit last week, Biden referred to the Ukrainian president as “Putin.”
The US mainstream media has speculated that if Trump wins a second term, he would be much more willing to continue fighting Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s “special operations” to topple Zelensky, who has provided millions of dollars to the Ukrainian government and called Zelensky a “Nazi” despite being one of the few Jewish leaders in the world. Trump himself has suggested he would more closely monitor how US taxpayer money is spent in Ukraine and praised Zelensky as a good “salesman,” but has avoided directly criticizing the Ukrainian leader with whom he developed a friendly relationship during his first term.
“I think Zelensky is probably the greatest salesman of any politician in the history of the country. Every time he comes to our country, he brings home $60 billion,” Trump said at the event in June.
Zelensky was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. Expressed There is little concern about a change in power in Washington.
“If Donald Trump becomes president, we will work together,” he said. “I’m not afraid of that.”
The comments mark a slight change in tone from Zelenskyy a year ago, when he said: The Wall Street Journal Biden said he was “more cooperative with us than President Trump was,” but acknowledged that he didn’t need as much help from Trump at the time because “there wasn’t an all-out war against our country.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted that he fears a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House. https://t.co/obnkDTOJyq
—Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 4, 2023
“In a situation like this, if you have support, you fear change,” Zelenskyy acknowledged. “And to be honest, when it comes to regime change, I feel the same as everyone else… I want change for the better, but it could also be the other way around.”
Zelensky’s resignation and ruling out the possibility of working with Trump again came after a resurgence of open resentment between Biden and Zelensky, tensions that have characterized Biden’s first months in office. Ahead of Russia’s all-out invasion, Biden opted to lift Trump-era sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would have significantly expanded access to European markets for Russia’s natural gas industry. Zelensky vented his anger in an interview with Washington outlet Axios, saying he couldn’t trust Biden to lift the sanctions and correctly predicted they would spark a bigger war.
“Nord Stream 2, for me, remains… we understand that this is a weapon, a real weapon, and I speak openly about it,” Zelenskiy said at the time. “It is a weapon that has fallen into the hands of the Russian Federation, and I cannot possibly understand, and certainly cannot expect, that the ammunition for this weapon would come from a great country like the United States.”
Biden and Zelensky repaired their relationship after Putin’s “special operation” in February 2022, but Biden’s recent public gaffes have reportedly worried Zelensky. Axios reported during the NATO summit that Zelensky was concerned about Biden’s health and ability to continue working. Zelensky has not spoken out publicly about it, but acknowledged in a public appearance in Washington that “frankly, everybody is waiting for November. The whole world is watching November, and the truth is, Putin is waiting for November too.”
The NATO summit ended with Biden calling Zelensky “President Putin,” a remark the Ukrainian president denied as a gaffe.
“That’s a mistake. I think the U.S. has given a lot of help to the Ukrainians. I think we can forget about some mistakes,” he said. Said The reporter later said:
Related: This is blackmail! Biden, Zelensky ask Americans for more funding for Ukraine
Zelensky appears to be preparing for the possibility that a Trump presidency would mean the US would devote significantly less money to his war efforts. After the Trump-Biden debate, reports began to emerge that Zelensky was considering direct negotiations with Russia. The war has technically been going on for 10 years. The Ukrainian president hosted a “peace summit” in Switzerland in June that was widely criticized because Russian representatives did not attend, and has expressed interest in hosting a second one.
Zelensky on Monday Appeared Trump confirmed reports of his interest in the meeting, saying, “I believe that Russia should be represented at the second peace summit. ” He suggested that “everything will be ready for a second summit” by November, when the US presidential elections are held.
Zelensky also offered his condolences to Trump and his family following the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday.
“I am appalled to learn of the shooting of former US President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. Such violence is unjustified and has no place anywhere in the world. Violence should never be allowed to take hold,” Zelenskyy said in the message. Published “I pray for strength for everyone who is horrified by this incident. I hope America emerges from this stronger,” he wrote on social media.
Trump and Zelensky maintained a friendly relationship during Trump’s first term in office, which coincided with Zelensky, a professional comedian,’s unexpected victory in Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election. Trump reflected on their friendship in June.
“And I like him. You know, on impeachment disinformation number one, he was very good. He said, ‘No, the president did not threaten me at all,'” Trump said. “He could have grandstanding and said, ‘I was threatened.’
Zelensky was a central figure in Democrats’ initial attempt to impeach and remove President Trump from office.
President Trump is accused of improperly pressuring President Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son Hunter over alleged corruption in Ukraine.
Zelensky has repeatedly and consistently denied that President Trump acted inappropriately.
The impeachment attempt ultimately failed after Zelenskiy refused to back up Democrats’ allegations that Trump pressured him into an unethical investigation.
