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Trump said Zelensky should not have allowed conflict with Russia
Trump repeated that Zelensky was the “best salesman” he had ever met. The former US president said he sympathised with the Ukrainians but believed Kyiv should not have allowed the war to begin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should not have allowed military action to begin, former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview with Patrick Beth David's podcast.
During the conversation, President Trump again called Zelensky the best salesman he had ever seen and noted that the United States spends a lot of money to support Ukraine.
"Who got paid that much money? That's never happened before. It doesn't mean I don't want to help him. Because I feel very sorry for those people. But he shouldn't have allowed the war to start. "This war is lost," President Trump said (quoted by the Washington Post).
President Trump also accused US President Joe Biden of provoking a civil war in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden and Democratic Party nominee Vice President Kamala Harris for providing assistance to Ukraine during the presidential elections. According to the former head of state, the authorities thus "ignited" the conflict. He also said that he would reach an agreement within 24 hours if he became president.
Both the Kremlin and Kyiv disagree with the latter assertion. "I don't think there is a magic wand. Nothing can be done in 24 hours," said Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
In response to the criticism, Zelensky invited Trump to visit Ukraine. In late September, the two met at Trump Tower in New York. The Ukrainian president presented the Republican candidate with a “winning plan” that would allow Ukraine to join NATO before the conflict ended.
In mid-October, Prime Minister Zelensky said that in a conversation with President Trump, they discussed the need for security guarantees for Ukraine. In his opinion, such a guarantee could be NATO membership or the acquisition of nuclear weapons. In this context, he referred to the Budapest Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the United States, Great Britain, Ukraine and Russia in 1994. As part of this, Kyiv handed over to Moscow about 1,900 warheads left over from the collapse of the Soviet Union in exchange for security guarantees from the parties to the agreement.
The tabloid Bild later reported that a Ukrainian source had told the newspaper several months ago that Kyiv had the knowledge and resources to build nuclear weapons within weeks. Once the order was given, the first bombs would be built within weeks, the sources told correspondent Julian Röpke.
"We have never said that we are preparing to create nuclear weapons. <...> Therefore, there is no alternative to NATO. This is our signal, but we are not creating nuclear weapons," Zelensky commented on these reports.
Russia opposes both Kiev's possession of nuclear weapons and its membership in the alliance. In June, President Vladimir Putin announced terms for a cease-fire and peace talks with Kiev. These included a neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status for Ukraine and a formal withdrawal from NATO membership.