By Gram Slattery
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday after having criticized him on the U.S. campaign trail and expressed doubts the U.S. ally can win its war with Russia.
Trump said on Thursday they would meet at 9:45 a.m. (1345 GMT) at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Though Trump and Zelenskiy talked over the phone in July, this will be their first in-person meeting since Trump’s 2017-2021 term.
Zelenskiy, who is in the United States for the U.N. General Assembly, met on Thursday with Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election.
While Ukraine’s leader was in Washington, Biden announced a new military aid package of more than $8 billion, while Harris reaffirmed her support for Kyiv and, in a veiled swipe at Trump, accused him of failing to stand up for the Eastern European ally.
Before departing Kyiv, Zelenskiy had expressed his intention to present his “victory plan” to defeat Russia to Biden, Harris and Trump. But among his unspoken goals on Friday will likely be patching up his relationship with Trump who has at times been critical of Zelenskiy.
Over the weekend, Zelenskiy traveled to a munitions factory in Pennsylvania with that state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, a key Harris ally. The visit upset Trump’s campaign and enraged some congressional Republicans who viewed the trip as a campaign stop, particularly as Pennsylvania is an important battleground state expected to decide the U.S. election.
Trump, for his part, has intensified his criticisms of Zelenskiy in recent days. He said on Monday that Zelenskiy wanted Harris to win the election, and on Wednesday he called the Eastern European nation “dead” and “demolished.”
Generally speaking, Trump has declined to say he wants Ukraine to win its war with Russia and he has characterized U.S. aid to Ukraine as a waste of money.
As late as Thursday, people close to Trump and his campaign had said a meeting appeared extremely unlikely, though the former president apparently changed his mind during Zelenskiy’s stay in the country.
Meetings between presidential candidates and foreign leaders have taken place during previous election campaigns. In 2016, Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton both met leaders of Egypt, Japan and Ukraine during that year’s U.N. General Assembly.
But such encounters are nonetheless sensitive, as the law limits what candidates can say or discuss during such encounters.
The 1799 Logan Act permits Americans outside the government to meet with foreign officials, but it also limits their ability to negotiate U.S. disputes.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Howard Goller)
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