Trump’s statements on Ukraine are ‘election messages,’ Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he’s treating Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s vow to end the Russia-Ukraine war immediately as a campaign promise that is not necessarily based on anything specific that his country needs to be worried about.

Speaking on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” in a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday, Zelenskyy said: “Election messages are election messages. Sometimes they are not very real.”

Supporters of Ukraine have expressed concern that Trump intends to end the war quickly by selling Ukraine out at the expense of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Zelenskyy said he has talked to Trump and that the former president was “very supportive.”

“I had a phone call with Donald Trump, and he said that he’s very supportive and we had good conversation,” he told Zakaria.

In Tuesday’s debate with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Trump passed on two opportunities to say he wants Ukraine to prevail in the two-year-old war, instead stating he wants a deal to be reached to stop the fighting.

“Just get it done. All right. Negotiate a deal,” Trump told moderator David Muir.

As for the current American president, Zelenskyy said the world is waiting for President Joe Biden’s answer as to whether U.S. long-range missiles can be used to strike targets deep within Russia. On Thursday, Putin said such a move would be tantamount to an act of war. “This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia,” he said.

Zelenskyy said he expects that if the Biden administration grants permission, other nations will follow along those lines.

“Everybody is looking [for] the decision of the United States. Everybody is waiting for such decisions,” he said, adding: “We wanted very much to use this weapon and just to attack these jets on the military bases, not civilians, infrastructure. Military bases.”

Zelenskyy said these Russian bases are being used for strikes on Ukraine’s territory, including civilian targets.

He also said he will offer up a peace plan to Biden at their next meeting.

“I will share with Biden. It’s about security. Security. It’s about geopolitical place for Ukraine,” he said, adding that he would also share his proposal with Trump and Harris.

Zakaria pressed Zelenskyy as to how he thinks the war could end, saying that Zelenskyy’s forces were not going to be able to achieve “total victory” and that Putin’s soldiers were “not going to be able to occupy Kyiv.”

“There will have to be some compromise,” Zakaria said.

Zelenskyy responded that Ukraine would have to be in an advantageous position for the war to end.

“It’s when you’re very strong. When you’re very strong. And the other side knows that you’re very strong. And you’re as strong as possible to make influence on his society,” he said.