Zelensky, Putin vie for edge with Trump ahead of Ukraine pivot

US commitment to Ukraine’s war aid remains uncertain following Trump’s triumph in the 2024 White House race

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A photo made available by the press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’s 24th Mechanized Brigade November 1, 2024 shows servicemen of the 24th Mechanized Brigade. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:23pm, 8 Nov 2024Updated: 4:27pm, 8 Nov 2024

The leaders of Ukraine and Russia began jockeying for influence with President-elect Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the US election, seeking through public statements to gain an advantage in his promised push for a resolution to their years-long conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called for “a fair ending to the war” and warned that a swift end to hostilities could force his country into a defeat.

“A quick ending would be a loss,” Zelensky told reporters at a summit in Budapest hosted by Viktor Orban, the European Union’s biggest critic of aid for Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and said the Republican, who on the campaign trail pledged to broker a peace deal between the two countries and suggested he wanted to scale back or end US aid to Kyiv, had ideas worth exploring.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

“It seems to me, it deserves attention what was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said late Thursday at the annual meeting of the Valdai Club in the Black Sea city of Sochi, in his first comments on Trump’s re-election. “I have always said that we will work with any head of state who has the trust of the American people.”