Phone conversation after 5 years between Zelensky and Trump: They talked about US support for Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, former U.S. president and Republican presidential nominee, held a phone call on July 19, five years after a fateful 2019 phone call between the two led to Trump’s first impeachment, writes Kiev Independent.
President Zelensky announced on Twitter that the two discussed the "vital importance of bipartisan and bicameral" U.S. support for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader also noted that the leaders agreed to a future "personal" meeting to discuss peace with Russia.
"Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror," Zelensky said. "Russian attacks on our cities and villages continue every day. We agreed with President Trump to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting."
Zelensky also reportedly congratulated Trump on the Republican nomination and condemned the assassination attempt against the former President earlier this week.
Politico later reported that President Trump called it a "very good call" and will work to negotiate a peace deal. An anonymous source close to Zelensky also told Politico that the conversation went "exceedingly well."
In the backdrop of this most recent phone call is the July 2019 phone exchange during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate his political rivals one week after withholding U.S. military aid to Kyiv.
According to transcripts released of the call, Zelensky told Trump that Ukraine wanted to buy more U.S.-made Javelins to fight Russia’s war in the east that had been ongoing since 2014.
In response, Trump said to Zelensky: "I would like you to do us a favor, though.”
Trump then told Zelensky he wanted Ukraine to investigate U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and work with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election, specifically an unfounded claim that Ukraine had broken into a Democratic server.
Hunter Biden took a paid seat on the board of Burisma, a controversial Ukrainian gas company, in April 2014, just a month after Russia illegally annexed Crimea. He later resigned from Burisma in April 2019 during his father’s 2020 campaign for president.
Zelensky told the BBC on July 18 that if re-elected, working with Trump would be "hard work, but we (Ukrainians) are hard workers."
He also said he is ready to work with whoever is elected U.S. president to defeat Russia. "Maybe he really doesn’t care, but we have to work with the United States," he added.
Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination on July 18. His chances to win the presidency are expected to increase following an assassination attempt, and calls for Biden to step out of the race are growing louder amid concerns over his health.
The former president has long criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine and, as the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 U.S. elections, held sway over the party and contributed to the months-long deadlock in Congress over U.S. aid to Ukraine.
