Unsure of Trump’s actions if re-elected in US elections: Zelenskiy

“I can’t tell you what he will do, if he will be the president of the United States. I don’t know.” Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the US

 

presidential election in November, has frequently criticized the size of US military support for Ukraine – some $60 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 – and called Zelenskiy “the greatest salesman ever.”

 

Two of his national security advisers have presented Trump with a plan to end US military aid to Ukraine unless it opened talks with Russia to end the conflict.

 

Trump’s dealings with Zelenskiy became the subject of his first impeachment as president by the US House of Representatives in 2019. He was accused of pressing Zelenskiy to help smear Joe Biden in return for aid, but was acquitted by the Senate in 2020.

 

On policy toward Nato, Trump has said he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any alliance member that did not spend enough on defense and he would not defend them. The Nato charter obliges members to come to the defense of those who are attacked.

 

Zelenskiy urged US political leaders on Tuesday not to wait for the outcome of America’s November presidential election to move forcefully to aid his country, as he called for fewer restrictions on the use of US weaponry.

 

“Everyone is waiting for November. Americans are waiting for November, in Europe, Middle East, in the Pacific, the whole world is looking towards November and, truly speaking, Putin awaits November too,” Zelenskiy said.

 

“It is time to step out of the shadows, to make strong decisions … to act and not to wait for November or any other month.”

Earlier on Tuesday, President Joe Biden pledged to forcefully defend Ukraine at the Nato summit.

 

But Biden, 81, is reeling from 12 days of withering questions about his fitness for office as some of his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and campaign donors fear that he will lose the election after a halting debate performance on June 27.

 

Trump is leading Biden by 2.1 percentage points nationally, according to a polling average maintained by website FiveThirtyEight.

 

Asked about Putin’s views of Biden and Trump, Zelenskiy said cautiously: “Biden and Trump are very different. But they are supportive (of) democracy. And that’s why I think Putin will hate both of them.”

 

Zelenskiy’s choice of venue, the Ronald Reagan Institute, could be another sign of Ukraine’s effort to reach out to Republicans.

Andrew Weiss at the Carnegie Endowment think-tank said Kyiv has been trying to build “as many bridges to the Republican mainstream establishment as possible.”

 

“There’s a process underway in Kyiv of trying to think through the implications of a possible Trump return to the White House,” Weiss said.

 

Zelenskiy was introduced by top US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who lauded the Ukrainian leader and strongly supported greater assistance to Kyiv.

 

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Jul 10 2024 | 9:18 AM IST