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Zelensky invites Trump to Ukraine

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Zelensky invites Trump to Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during the press conference in Warsaw, Poland on April 5, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)


President Volodymyr Zelensky has extended an invitation to Donald Trump to visit Kyiv, with a specific condition attached.

Speaking with U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 News, Zelensky said that Trump would be warmly received in the capital under one stipulation: the former U.S. president must demonstrate his ability to bring an end to the war with Russia within 24 hours, as he once promised.

Trump has repeatedly said that the war would not have happened if he was still in power in Washington, and that he would bring it to an immediate end if voted back in because he has what he described as "a good relationship" with both Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Beyond that, former U.S. president has provided no details of what his peace deal would involve.

Zelensky, who has previously extended the invitation without receiving a response, emphasized that if Trump indeed has a "formula" for resolving the war, he is eager to learn the specifics.

“So, I invite President Trump. If he can come here, I will need 24 minutes — yes, 24 minutes. Not more. Yes. Not more — 24 minutes to explain [to] President Trump that he can’t manage this war. He can’t bring peace because of Putin.”Zelensky said on air: “He is very welcome to come here, but I think he can not end the war in 24 hours, without giving our land to Putin.”

CNN: US aid slump unlikely to have major short-term impact, intelligence says
U.S. intelligence does not believe that a decrease in U.S. aid for Ukraine will have a major impact on the battlefield in the short term but will become a problem later once Russia regroups, CNN reported on Jan. 19, citing anonymous sources.
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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