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Zelenskiy, in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets
published on Tuesday, asked Trump to visit the country so he
could hear the former U.S. president's ideas for ending Russia's
invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Trump's campaign said on Wednesday there had been no formal
outreach from Zelenskiy to the former president.
"There's been no outreach from Zelenskiy, and President Trump
has said publicly it wouldn't be appropriate for him to go to
Ukraine right now since he's not Commander in Chief," the Trump
campaign said in an email.
U.S. presidential candidates often travel abroad to burnish
their foreign policy credentials.
Former Republican candidates who have now dropped out, like
former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie, visited Ukraine during the campaign for the
Republican nomination. During his first presidential run in
2016, Trump visited Mexico and met with its then-president,
Enrique Pena Nieto.
Trump and hardline Republicans in Congress oppose further aid to
Ukraine, with the possible exception of a loan.
He won the Republican nomination in March and will face
Democratic President Joe Biden in the presidential election on
Nov. 5
Trump, a longtime admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
has been critical of Washington's support for Ukraine in its war
with Russia and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if
elected.
Trump told Reuters in an interview last June that the Kyiv
government might have to concede some territory to Russia in
order to stop the war. If he became president, everything would
be subject to negotiation, he said.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Trump has privately
said he could end the war by pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea
and the Donbas border region to Russia.
In his comments on Tuesday, Zelenskiy said he was open to
hearing Trump's proposals but also expressed skepticism.
"If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that's
the idea behind it, then it's a very primitive idea," he said.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Ross
Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)
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