Trump says he will ‘probably’ meet Zelenskyy next week

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will “probably” see Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to the United States next week.

Zelenskyy will attend the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York next week. He is expected to deliver a speech Wednesday and, at some point, introduce his so-called victory plan for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

While NATO-skeptic Trump has repeatedly avoided saying he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia, U.S. Democrats — including President Joe Biden and presidential candidate Kamala Harris — have strongly supported Kyiv with military aid to fend off Moscow’s aggression.

Polling in battleground states for November’s U.S. election shows a knife-edge race between Trump and Harris, and a Trump-led Republican administration could potentially scale back or even end American support for Ukraine, which would mark a sea change in U.S. foreign policy — and leave Kyiv shorn of its most important backer.

Trump and Zelenskyy previously spoke on the phone in July, but a meeting between the two would mark their first in-person interaction since Trump left the White House in January 2021.

In July 2019, another phone call between the two led to Trump’s first impeachment after he pushed Zelenskyy to investigate then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 

Trump later said that he spoke “perfectly” on the 2019 phone call with the Ukrainian president and argued that he made no clear request of a favor in exchange for the release of American military aid money to Ukraine. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

During an interview with tech billionaire Elon Musk on X in August, Trump described Zelenskyy as “very honorable” and said, “There’s nobody that feels worse about the Ukraine situation than I do.”

Zelenskyy is also expected meet Harris during his trip, according to multiple media reports.