The former US president has criticized Washington’s handouts to Kiev and vowed to end the conflict with Russia “in 24 hours” if elected

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claims that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told him the US would continue to support his country if he is elected this November. Zelensky also denied reports that he endorsed Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said that while he does not “know what will be after [the US presidential] elections, and who will be the president,” Kiev will be expecting “answers… from the United States.”

He stressed that Washington’s stance is particularly important as it has always been Kiev’s top backer. Regarding his conversation with Trump on Friday, Zelensky described it as “really productive.”

“I’ve got from Donald Trump very direct information that he will be on our side, that he will support Ukraine,” he went on to claim. Zelensky added that the Republican candidate was “very interested” to hear “directly” from him about the current situation on the front line, as well as Ukraine’s needs.

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The former US president has claimed that he will be able to force Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution “within 24 hours” of being elected.

Speaking to New Yorker magazine last Sunday, the Ukrainian leader said he believes Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how.” Asked by the Fox News host whether he still stands by this comment, Zelensky argued that no one outside of Ukraine can really understand what his country is going through.

“We both want to see this end, we both want to see a fair deal made,” Trump said following his meeting with Zelensky on Friday.

Speaking at a campaign rally on Wednesday, Trump criticized Zelensky for not negotiating with Russia to end the conflict, saying that even the “worst deal” would be better than the current situation. The former president also argued that neither his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, nor President Joe Biden know how to extricate the US from the Ukraine conflict.

Trump went on to claim that Zelensky wants Harris to “win this election so badly,” as the Democrats have proven to be reliably generous toward Ukraine during Biden’s term in office.

“I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion,” he said. Trump has previously vowed to put an end to this.

Moscow has declared Ukrainian neutrality to be one of the main objectives in its military operation, also insisting that any potential peace talks take into account the “territorial reality” of Russian control over former Ukrainian regions that Kiev claims as its own.