Trump Says Good Meeting With Zelenskiy, Calls for War End
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump said he had a “good” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Davos and expressed renewed hope the war Russia has started four years ago is going to end.
Zelenskiy rushed to Switzerland on Thursday after saying earlier this week that he was unlikely to travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. The Ukrainian leader has been overseeing efforts to respond to massive Russian airstrikes that have left millions of people in vast areas of Kyiv and several other regions without heating, power and water during freezing winter weather.
“The meeting was good,” the US president told reporters after an hour-long sitdown with Zelenskiy. US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner are set to travel to Moscow on Thursday.
“They’re meeting with President Putin today, as you know,” Trump said. “We’ll see how it turns out.”
An aide to Zelenskiy also characterized the meeting as “good.”
Later, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that his Ukrainian counterpart had traveled to the meeting to emphasize wanted to make a deal.
“It’s not like we’re discussing things that have been discussed for six or seven months. He came and said he wants to make a deal,” Trump said.
The US president said he also asked Zelenskiy how Ukraine has managed widespread heating outages.
“He gave me the answer: ‘It’s pretty amazing what they do to live,’” Trump said.
The latest flurry of diplomatic efforts has in recent days been overshadowed by Trump’s territorial claims on Greenland, with Germany calling on allies to re-focus on ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.
“We hope it’s going to end. A lot of people being killed.” Trump said on Thursday. “It’s really a war that has to end.”
Zelenskiy said earlier this week he would reconsider plans to skip the gathering if there were agreements to be signed on security guarantees and a plan to revive the country’s economy with the US.
Witkoff said on Wednesday the work on the latest peace proposals was “90% done.” He and Kushner have been holding talks with Ukrainian counterparts on a 20-point peace plan, security guarantees and postwar rebuilding since November. The teams met again in Davos on Wednesday.
“We spent at dinner last night talking about the upward trajectory for Ukraine, and economy and financial system, capital markets, the jobs,” Witkoff told the audience at a breakfast panel organized by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk in Davos on Thursday.
“This is the time to end this” war, Witkoff said. “I think we’re going to get it done.”
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told the same audience that while he was convinced that Ukraine, the US and Europe will arrive at “a good package which has the elements for a lasting peace,” the big question mark remains Russia.
“I’m not convinced that Russia will approve this and this is the worry that I have,” Stubb said. “And that’s why this is not over yet.”
–With assistance from Kirsi Heikel and Olesia Safronova.
(Adds Trump in paragraphs 5-9)
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