During his latest interview with CNN, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky weighed on past remarks made by former US President Donald Trump about Russian President Vladimir Putin, providing his perspective of the apparently "positive" view Trump has of Putin.
Speaking about the major devastation his country has suffered over the last seven months, since the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in another CNN interview with the journalist Fareed Zakaria.
Watch Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky share with CNN's @FareedZakaria what he would tell former US President Donald Trump about Russian President Vladimir Putin: https://t.co/5GUdF7xndC
— CNN (@CNN) September 11, 2022
During the interview, Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the military support his country has received from international allies, namely the United States, and was asked about his hopes for the US administration especially as the Mid-term elections approach, scheduled for November 2022.
CNN's Fareed Zakaria then proceeded to highlight the controversial stance of former US President Donald Trump when it comes to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zakaria mentioned that Donald Trump had always praised Putin and his politics, including calling Putin "a genius" following his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
If Trump had won a second term, Russia would now be occupying all of Ukraine and Zelensky would probably be dead. https://t.co/NQoLD2N22l
— THEE dr. emigre80????? (@emigre80) September 12, 2022
Zakaria's question came to link Donald Trump's views of Putin to the GOP's chances of winning the next Mid-terms and his aspiration to re-run for president in 2024.
"I believe he had enough time to understand who Putin is. I think he was in such a high position that it isn't even possible not to recognize that Putin is the opponent of the American people and their values. He has all the might of intelligence and data resources to create a psychological profile to understand who Putin is and what he's aspiring to do and what steps he will take. So I was surprised that even after the full-fledged invasion, Donald Trump mentioned the things you just said. I believe that he needs to look at this not only from the standpoint that Putin is a threat to Ukraine. Ukraine for him is too faraway but this war has no distance, so I believe he needs to look at the situation wihout broader perspective."
Answering the question of what Zelensky "can tell Trump to better help him understand the Putin Zelensky sees", the Ukrainian President expressed his surprise at Trump's position on Vladimir Putin over the years, saying the former US President had all the intelligence resources to understand Putin and his political ambitions.
