Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is challenging former President Trump to release a plan for ending the ongoing war with Russia.
“If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelensky said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. “If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood — we want to be ready for this, we want to know.”
Zelensky said in the interview that he was “potentially ready” to meet with Trump to hear his proposal, according to Bloomberg.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in just 24 hours if he were the president. Zelensky has responded to that promise and has extended an invitation to Trump numerous times for him to visit war-torn Ukraine.
The former president has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past, calling him a “genius” shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During the presidential debate last week, Trump criticized the amount of funding the U.S. has sent to Ukraine, adding that the country is “not winning the war.”
“I’m only saying, the money that we’re spending on this war, and we shouldn’t be spending, it should have never happened. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelensky as president-elect before I take office on January 20th. I’ll have that war settled,” Trump said.
Zelensky also pushed back on the idea that the war is in a “deadlock” and suggested that Ukraine needs more resources to help them in the war, Bloomberg reported.
“It’s not a deadlock, it’s a problematic situation,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “A deadlock means there’s no way out. But a problem can be solved if one has the will and has the tools. We do have the will, and the tools — they haven’t arrived yet.”
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.