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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a wartime president who knows when to be diplomatic. Tuesday was one of those times.
Asked about the prospect that former President Donald Trump could be reelected, the Ukrainian leader took a pragmatic approach: He dodged.
Zelenskyy, in Washington for the annual NATO Summit, told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Institute that he has had good conversations with the former president in the past and is optimistic he would have them again if Trump returns to the White House.
“I hope that if the people of America will elect President Trump, I hope that his policy with Ukraine will not change,” he told Fox anchor Bret Baier, who was moderating the conversation.
The response likely obscures significant concern — within the Ukrainian government and among its supporters — about the possible return of Trump, who has sought closer relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy acknowledged that his positive interactions with Trump were before Putin launched the invasion, and that the election was weighing heavily on Ukrainians, the Russian leader and others.
“Now, everyone is waiting for November. Americans are waiting for November. In Europe, Middle East, in the Pacific, the whole world is looking to November,” he said. “And, truly speaking, Putin awaits November.”
He also said actions must be taken now to resist the Russian invasion. “It’s time to step out of the shadows to make strong decisions to act and not wait for November.”
Trump has claimed he could end the war on his first day in office and has threatened to cut aid to Ukraine. And while advisers and allies have taken to the pages of opinion sections and magazines to say the new administration would continue to support Kyiv, fears have not abated that Trump could exact revenge on Ukraine for what he views as contributions to his past political problems.
Those worries have weighed over the gathering of NATO countries happening a few blocks away. NATO leaders have rushed to “Trump-proof” key security initiatives and protect them from political maneuvering they anticipate will occur during a second Trump presidency. European leaders have also adjusted their messaging on aid to Ukraine and the NATO alliance in the hopes of appealing to the former president.
The former president and his allies, for their part, insist the fears are overblown and stem from unfair animus toward the former president. Trump has pledged to continue U.S. involvement in NATO, so long as member states meet defense spending targets and continue contributing to the defense of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy spoke to a sympathetic audience that included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime supporter of aid to Ukraine who gave the introductory remarks.
Also in attendance were Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Both men have vocally supported aid to Kyiv as it continues to repel Russia’s two-year invasion and pushed the White House to reduce restrictions on the usage of American-made munitions against targets in Russian territory.
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s remarks, McConnell appeared to make a contrast of his own between the two ideological poles within his party, reflecting on Reagan’s support for anti-communist movements and combating Soviet aggression.
“It’s no mystery where he would have stood while a proud nation gave him sons and daughters to beat back Soviet imperialism asking only that America and the West had its back,” McConnell said. “He understood that supporting their democratic aspirations wasn’t a matter of charity.”
