Trump repeats bizarre claim that he could end Russia-Ukraine war as he meets with Zelensky

Former President Donald Trump repeated a bizarre boast that he could, if elected president in November, negotiate an end to the nearly three-year Russian war against Ukraine before he formally takes office in January 2025.

The ex-president, who was impeached in late 2019 for using American defense assistance to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing sham investigations into President Joe Biden and his son, made the outlandish claim alongside Zelensky as he met the Ukrainian leader at his eponymous skyscraper in New York City.

While Trump told reporters he and Zelensky “have a very good relationship”, he also boasted of his “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We have a very good relationship. And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” he said.

Zelensky quickly interjected: “I hope we have more good relations between us.”

When it was his turn to speak, Zelensky said he was there to read Trump in on the “victory plan” hehad already presented to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris when he met with them in Washington on Thursday.

He said both he and Trump share a “common view that the war… has to be stopped, and Putin can’t win and Ukrainians have to prevail.”

“And I want to discuss with you the details of our plan,” he added.

For his part, Trump said he and Zelensky have had “a great relationship,” citing Zelensky’s decision to deny that Trump had exerted any pressure on him during the July 2019 phone call in which he’d linked sending Javelin anti-tank missiles to Zelensky’s announcement of investigations into the Bidens.

“So we're going to sit down