Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded on Sunday to former US President Donald Trump’s claims that he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if elected to the White House, The Hill reported.
“It seems to me that the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful,” Zelenskyy was quoted as having told ABC’s “This Week” through a translator. “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.”
“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,” added the Ukrainian President.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that if he were President, he could end the Russian war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
Late last month, Trump told the Reuters news agency in an interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been "somewhat weakened" by an aborted mutiny and that now is the time for the United States to try to broker a negotiated peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.
"I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war," Trump said in the interview.
On Ukraine, Trump did not rule out that the Kyiv government might have to concede some territory to Russia in order to stop the war, which began with Russian forces invading Ukraine 16 months ago. He said everything would be "subject to negotiation", if he were president, but that Ukrainians who have waged a vigorous fight to defend their land have "earned a lot of credit."
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine got underway, Trump described Putin's actions in Ukraine as "genius" and "pretty savvy."
After coming under fire for the remarks, Trump clarified his comments at CPAC 2022 and said, "The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling. We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all."
Trump did say he thinks that Putin is “smart” but also that American and NATO leaders are dumb. He opined that President Joe Biden’s weakness and the failures in the Afghanistan withdrawal are what prompted Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“Nobody could ever believe how bad and weak and grossly incompetent he has been. And when you have a weak president who is not respected by other nations, you have a very chaotic world,” said Trump. “And the world hasn’t been this chaotic since World War II.”