Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky has once again offered to give former US president Donald Trump a tour of the Ukraine frontline in response to America’s leading opposition presidential candidate’s claims that he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
Speaking on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky said before making policy decisions Trump should visit the frontline to see the war against Russian troops with his own eyes.
“I think if we are in dialogue how to finish the war, we have to demonstrate to people who are decision-makers, what does it mean – the real war, not in Instagram,” he said.
“If he will come, I’m ready even to go with him to the frontline.”
Trump, who is currently polling as the leading Republican candidate to face Democrat incumbent Joe Biden in the upcoming US presidential election in November, has repeatedly claimed that he would end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office by forcing Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
In November, Zelensky made the same remarks suggesting that Trump should visit his country to see the scale of the war for himself.
“If he can come here, I will need 24 minutes – yes, 24 minutes – to explain President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” he said at the time.
In January, the Ukrainian president also invited Trump to his country, saying “Yes, please, Donald Trump: I invite you to Ukraine, to Kiev. If you can stop the war during 24 hours, I think it will be enough to come to Kiev, on any day I am here.”
Trump, leading Biden in multiple polls, has also repeatedly urged congressional Republicans not to approve additional Ukraine aid and has argued that Washington should instead push to end the conflict.
Zelensky also criticized Kiev’s Western allies, warning that “keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war.”
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved $60 billion in funding for Ukraine, in a bill House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated his Republican-led chamber will reject.
