Zelenskyy Attacks Trump For Saying He Can End War In One Day
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in just one day, making a false equivalence to his lack of response to Russia seizing Crimea — which happened under former President Barack Obama.
Trump — who is the first president in several decades to not start a new endless war — has stated numerous times that if he were president, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not have happened. He has also asserted that, upon being reelected in the 2024 presidential election, he would end the Russia-Ukraine war in just “one day.”
“I want everyone to stop dying,” Trump said. “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done… in 24 hours, I’ll have it done. You need the power of the presidency to do it.”
During an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, Zelenskyy noted that his position on the war has not changed — stating that he will not agree to a peaceful solution that involves ceding any territory to Russia.
After Raddatz played a clip of Trump’s vow to end the war, Zelenskyy stated: “It seems to me that the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful.”
“But this desire should be based on some real-life experience. Well, it looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war, and as I assume, he had that time at his disposal — but he must have had some other priorities,” he added, referring to when Trump was in office and Russia was occupying Crimea and some parts of eastern Ukraine.
“If we are talking about ending the war at the cost of Ukraine, in other words, to make us give up our territories, well, I think, in this way, Biden could have brought it to an end even in five minutes — but we would not agree,” Zelenskyy continued.
Zelenskyy also called out U.S. lawmakers who have advocated for an end to the billions of American taxpayer dollars being funneled into the endless war in Ukraine — without which, Ukraine would not have the means to continue fighting and be forced to negotiate terms and end the conflict. He claimed that even suggesting that the U.S. stop funding the war is “dangerous.”
“It is important for us to preserve that bipartisan support of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “We understand that there are some dangerous signals coming from particular actual politicians in the U.S. regarding the reduce [sic] of assistance for Ukraine, or there might be some alternative vision and that is dangerous for us.”
