A day after officially accepting the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump is expected to speak by phone Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a source familiar with the plan told NBC News.
The call comes almost five years to the day after another call between the two led to Trump’s first impeachment, and while questions swirl about whether Trump would continue to support military aid for Ukraine in its battle against Russian invaders.
Trump has vowed that if he wins the election, he’d have the war “settled” while he’s still president-elect. He has not said how he’d do so. At his debate against President Joe Biden in June, Trump criticized the large amount of military aid going to Ukraine, but also said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms to end the war are “not acceptable.”
As for Ukraine’s president, Trump said, “Every time Zelenskyy comes to this country, he walks away with $60 billion. The greatest salesman ever.”
The selection of JD Vance as Trump’s running mate has also raised concerns in Kyiv, given his longtime criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine. In the leadup to the Russian invasion in 2022, Vance said on a podcast: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov praised Trump’s choice of Vance earlier this week, saying, “He’s in favor of peace, in favor of ending the assistance that’s been provided and we can only welcome that. that’s what we need — to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons. Then the war will end.”
Zelenskyy, who quickly condemned Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump on social media, told reporters on Monday he’d work with whoever is elected president in November.
“If Mr. Donald Trump becomes president, then we will work with him. I am not afraid of it,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv, according to Politico.
Zelenskyy said earlier this month that he didn’t know Trump very well, but he’d “had meetings with him, and we had we had good meetings when he was the president.”
Their first interaction, however, led to Trump’s first impeachment by the then-Democratically controlled House of Representatives. Trump was impeached on charges he abused his power by pressuring Zelenskyy to announce investigations into then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son while withholding almost $400 million in aid, and that he had obstructed Congress by refusing to release any documents related to his actions.
Trump denied any wrongdoing and maintained the call was “perfect.” He was acquitted at his trial before the Senate.
Biden has been a staunch ally of Ukraine, sending the country hundreds of billions of dollars in aid. He met with Zelenskyy last week at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., and mistakenly introduced him to the crowd as “President Putin.”
Trump said Biden’s gaffe was “not good. That was unpardonable.”
