Trump refuses to meet with Zelenskyy

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is apparently not going to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is currently in the United States. Earlier, Ukraine's Office of the President discussed the possibility of a meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump, and Zelenskyy's team planned to organize meetings with both current U.S. President Joe Biden and both candidates for the highest office in America, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Now, Donald Trump's entourage says that no meeting with Zelenskyy was planned, but Donald Trump himself recently emphasized the possibility of such a meeting. The fact that Donald Trump's team decided to refuse to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy may also be explained by the fact that during his speeches at rallies dedicated to his re-election as President of the United States, Donald Trump harshly criticized both current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who allegedly dragged the United States into the war and do not know how to get out of this situation.

Donald Trump now mentions the Russian-Ukrainian war at almost every one of his campaign rallies, and while in Pennsylvania he called Volodymyr Zelenskyy the best salesman in history because the Ukrainian president allegedly returns from the United States with 60 billion every time, at a campaign rally in Georgia he went much further and emphasized that there is no point in fighting Russia because it wins wars.

As proof, Donald Trump cited the textbook examples of the Russian Empire's victory in the war against French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as the Soviet Union's victory in the war against Adolf Hitler. However, Donald Trump forgot to say that without the help of the Allies, among whom the United States played a major role, Stalin's Soviet Union was hardly able to defeat Hitler's well-trained army in World War II. However, of course, this is not a matter of historical reminiscences, but of Donald Trump's sincere belief that the way to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is through his own negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump, as you know, has never hidden his admiration for authoritarian leaders and even tried to reach an agreement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during his term as president of the United States. The high-profile fiasco that ended with the continuation of North Korea's nuclear program taught Trump nothing, simply because such people are incapable of learning from their own mistakes and live in a world that suits them, and what happens to people outside of this cozy world of Donald Trump obviously does not bother either the former American president or his supporters.

And I have no doubt that even after these statements by Donald Trump and his refusal to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump's supporters will continue to argue that he will help Ukraine and knows how to end the war by defeating the Russian Federation.

And the truth is that he knows nothing, and assistance to Ukraine, if Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, is possible only if intense pressure is put on the head of state, as it was during his previous tenure in the United States.

Those who believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting with not only Biden, but also with both U.S. presidential candidates was a gamble from the start, as it is unlikely that both candidates would be willing to meet with the leader of Ukraine during an election campaign based on opposing positions, can look to other experiences to understand that Zelenskyy is not alone: Right now, at this very hour, the plane of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is en route to New York, where he plans not only to address the UN General Assembly, but also to meet, again, not only with U.S. President Joe Biden, but also with both candidates for the post.

Obviously, this is also an important meeting for Kier Starmer, especially before the summit that is planned in Germany, a summit during which Biden, Macron, Starmer and Scholz are to discuss a strategic vision for further support for Ukraine in the years to come in the Russian-Ukrainian war. And of course, it would be important for the British prime minister to understand how the man who may become the head of the United States in just a few months sees Western solidarity in helping Ukraine, and in general, actions to weaken the position of authoritarian states that have seriously challenged democracies and are going to win this fight, not lay down their arms. But the problem is that Starmer also finds himself in the same situation as Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It's one thing to express your desire to meet with Donald Trump, but it's quite another to get the former American president's team and Donald Trump himself to agree. And with every day of the election rallies, with every day that the confrontation between Trump and Harris intensifies, with every day that Trump gets more angry and starts saying absolutely harsh things during his rallies about the policies that he associates with his rival, the possibility of meeting with those whom he suspects of supporting Biden and Harris is seriously diminishing. It is worth recalling that in the UK, Trump supports not the Labor Party at all, but the odious Nigel Farage, who was the father of the insane Brexit that brought the UK to the brink of serious economic problems and a permanent crisis.

So in this situation, it turns out that not only Zelenskyy, but perhaps Starmer as well, should not rely on Donald Trump's attention, and this also allows us to draw conclusions about what a Trump presidency will be like if Americans vote for this irrepressible man.

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About the author. Vitaliy Portnikov, journalist, winner of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.