Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on September 25 of taking billions of dollars from the United States while at the same time refusing to "make a deal" to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
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Trump, who has been highly critical of the aid Washington has disbursed to Kyiv, said Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the months before Russia's February 2022 attack.
"Any deal -- the worst deal -- would’ve been better than what we have now," Trump said. "If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living, and every building would be built, and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”
Trump made the remark at a campaign rally in North Carolina as Zelenskiy attended the UN General Assembly in New York ahead of a visit on September 26 to Washington, where U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional aid package.
Trump has frequently claimed that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if he had been U.S. president and that he would swiftly put an end to the war if he returned to the White House. But he has not presented any concrete explanation of how he would accomplish that.
In a debate earlier this month with Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.
Russia and Ukraine held several negotiations before the full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022, but Kyiv rejected the demands put forth by Moscow, which included recognizing Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and separatist-controlled entities in Luhansk and Donetsk.
Trump’s comments in North Carolina appeared to be in response to Zelenskiy’s comments in an interview with The New Yorker in which he said Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”
Trump noted that Zelenskiy was in the United States and said he was making “little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me."
He also described Ukraine as a country in ruins outside of Kyiv that is short on soldiers and questioned whether it had any bargaining chips left to negotiate an end to the war.
“What deal can we make? It’s demolished,” he added. “The people are dead. The country is in rubble.”
Zelenskiy said he would present Biden with what he calls a victory plan for the war that is expected to include a request for permission to use long-range weapons provided by the United States to strike Russian targets.
SEE ALSO: At UN, Zelenskiy Claims Russia Plans Attacks On Ukraine's Nuclear PlantsThere had been reports that a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy would take place in New York, but the meeting was expected to be scrapped, according to U.S. media.
The White House said Biden launched a joint declaration of support for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction involving more than 30 countries, including the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, and the European Union.
Biden, Zelenskiy, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gathered with other world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in a strong display of unity for Ukraine.
"We're committed to providing Ukraine with the resources that it needs to build back stronger than before.... You're not alone in this fight," Biden said in launching the joint declaration.
A copy of the document distributed by the White House said it was Russia's responsibility under international law to pay for damages it had caused in Ukraine.
"We reaffirm that, consistent with all applicable laws and our respective legal systems, Russia’s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine," it said.
SEE ALSO: A Critical Trip For Zelenskiy As Battlefield Worsens And U.S. Election LoomsBiden said more U.S. actions to accelerate support for Ukraine will be announced on September 26.
In his remarks, Zelenskiy mentioned the U.S. Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II and said: "Today we are laying the foundation for a similar architecture of recovery."
Meanwhile, the U.S State Department announced on September 25 that Washington will provide $375 million in additional military aid to Ukraine.
The package includes high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, as well as Javelin and tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided (TOW) missiles.