Trump vows to work ‘closely with Zelensky’, says, ‘he’s gone through hell’

Meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time in five years, former President Donald Trump expressed his grudges about his 2019 impeachment.
Trump stated that if re-elected, he would aim to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict with a deal “that’s good for both sides.”
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“We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled and get it worked out,” Trump said, standing next to Zelenskyy while speaking to a small group of reporters ahead of their closed-door meeting. “It has to end. At some point, it has to end. He’s gone through hell. His country has gone through hell,” NBC News reported.
After their meeting, Trump told Fox News that he had not changed his position on the war. “We both want to see this end, we both want to see a fair deal made,” he said.
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Hours later, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of Trump’s top surrogates, spoke at a Trump rally in Walker, Michigan, where he argued against additional aid for Ukraine. He claimed that NATO provoked Russia’s invasion and asserted that the U.S. should stop supporting Zelenskyy and his people, said the report.
“Don’t you think we could use that money here, in this country?” Kennedy asked, eliciting strong applause from the audience.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with former US President and Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and described their discussion as productive. Zelenskyy also emphasised that both of them hold a “common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped.”
Sharing a post on X, Zelenskyy wrote, “I had a very productive meeting with Donald Trump. I presented him our Victory Plan, and we thoroughly reviewed the situation in Ukraine and the consequences of the war for our people. Many details were discussed. I am grateful for this meeting. A just peace is needed.”
He added, “We share the common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. Ukrainians must prevail.”
Notably, Trump’s stance on Ukraine has been somewhat controversial, having previously criticised US assistance to Ukraine and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump on Friday accused Google of only featuring “bad stories” about him and pledged to pursue legal action against the tech giant if he returns to the White House. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he provided no evidence for his claims and added that the search engine promotes only positive articles about his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, AFP repored.
“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” he said in the post.
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“If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the election.”
The Trump post came after a conservative group reported on what it said it found when doing a search on “Donald Trump presidential race 2024.”
“Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries,” Google said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google.”
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Google has firmly stated that it does not manipulate search results to favor any political candidate. While the company does not disclose the specifics of its search algorithms, it is known that factors such as the timeliness and popularity of topics can influence news story rankings.
Currently, Donald Trump is involved in several criminal and civil cases, facing accusations that include sexual abuse, paying hush money to a porn star, interfering with the 2020 election, and attempting to disrupt the peaceful transition of power following President Joe Biden’s victory.
(With inputs from agencies)