(Dan Tri) – President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is skeptical of former US President Donald Trump’s supposed peace plan to cede part of Ukrainian territory to Russia.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (Photo: Reuters).
`If (Mr. Trump’s) agreement and idea is simply to cede our territory, then that idea is still very rudimentary,` Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Bild newspaper on September 9.
Previously, the Washington Post reported on April 7, citing an anonymous source, that former US President Donald Trump once said that he could end the conflict in Ukraine by pressuring Kiev to cede the Crimea peninsula and
According to the Washington Post, Mr. Trump also said he believes that both Moscow and Kiev `want to save face and want a way out,` and declared that Ukrainians in territories controlled by Russia would not object to the move.
However, Mr. Trump’s adviser, Jason Miller, later denied these claims in a comment to the New York Post.
`It’s all fake news from the Washington Post. They just made it up. Former President Trump only talked about stopping the killing,` said Miller.
The Ukrainian President emphasized that he is willing to listen to Mr. Trump’s approach to quickly end the conflict if the former US president `really can do it`.
`We don’t need a great idea but a realistic idea. This is about human lives, we cannot joke around and cannot accept risks,` President Zelensky added.
Mr. Zelensky also recalled that Ukraine invited Mr. Trump to Ukraine, both publicly and privately, to see firsthand the situation in the country.
`I am definitely ready to meet him,` Mr. Zelensky declared.
Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has repeatedly called for peace negotiations to prevent the Ukraine conflict.
In an interview in March, Mr. Trump said negotiations were the only way to `stop the bloodshed in Europe.`
The former US President affirmed that he knows both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders well and knows exactly what to say to them to ensure that a peace agreement will be signed.
Mr. Trump compared the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a `chess match or a poker game` that he knows how to play.
In May last year, Mr. Trump declared that if he returned to power, he could end the Ukraine war in one day.
At the time, President Zelensky said that Mr. Trump’s comments were simply part of a `political message.`