Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy meets Trump in New York

Donald Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine if he gets elected president in November.

He made the comments to reporters as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in New York.

The last time the two met was five years ago.

"We have a very good relationship," Trump told reporters, "and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President [Vladimir] Putin, and I think if we win, we're going get it resolved very quickly," he said, referring to the November 5 vote.

Zelenskyy interjected to say that he hoped Trump's relationship with Ukraine was better than the one he has with Putin, at which point Trump said, "It takes two to tango."

Trump said he hoped to reach a solution to the conflict that worked for both sides. "At some point it has to end. He's going through hell, and his country is going through hell," he said, referring to Zelenskyy. 

On Thursday, the Ukrainian president met with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — Trump's Democratic Party rival in the presidential elections. 

Harris had implied in that meeting, albeit without naming her election rival, that Trump ultimately wanted Ukraine's "surrender," rather than peace.

Zelenskyy said he had decided to meet with both candidates because decisions about how Ukraine can be supported into the future could not wait until November. He said Kyiv counted on the US remaining strong, and that he wanted to present his so-called "victory plan" for the war to Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begun his meeting with US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York.

"The fact that we're even together today is a very good sign," Trump said, after arriving together with Zelenskyy at a conference room in Trump Tower.

"I think we have a common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can't win," Zelenskyy said.

The highly anticipated meeting comes after the publication of a Zelenskyy interview in the New Yorker this week in which the Ukrainian leader implied Trump did not fully understand the conflict in Ukraine or what his appeals for a negotiated settlement would truly mean for Kyiv.  

Trump, for his part, has in recent days repeatedly said the US needs to change course on Ukraine, for instance saying on Wednesday that "any deal — the worst deal — would have been better than what we have now." 

Germany said US President Joe Biden would visit the country on October 10-12 and host an international meeting to discuss military support for Ukraine.

Germany is "happy" to host Biden for what is being billed as a farewell visit ahead of the US presidential election in November, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a news conference.

He also confirmed that as part of the visit, a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will be convened on October 12 at the US air base in Ramstein, near Frankfurt, which is expected to bring together more than 50 of Ukraine's allies.

The last meeting, also at Ramstein, was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

NATO will set up a new land command in Finland near the Russian border next year, the Finnish defense minister said.

It is tasked with leading the military alliance's land force operations in northern Europe.

The center, which NATO calls the Multi Corps Land Component Command, will operate under the alliance's US-based Norfolk Joint Force Command and jointly with Finland's own land force command, which is already based in Mikkeli, about a two-hour drive from the Finnish-Russian border.

"This morning, I have decided that we will propose to NATO to establish the command in conjunction with the Army Headquarters in Mikkeli," said defense minister, Antti Hakkanen, following up on his June announcement that all NATO member states had given their political consent for the plan.

Hakkanen, speaking at a news conference, said the unit would initially have an annual budget of €8.5 million ($9.5 million) and consist of a few dozen international officers.

Finland joined the NATO alliance last year in response to neighboring Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Marynivka near Pokrovsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Ukraine has not confirmed the Russian seizure of the village.

Russian forces have accelerated their advance towards the railway and logistics hub of Pokrovsk, capturing several towns and villages.

Lithuania intends to buy German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks for a new division of its army, Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas told Lithuanian television.

The contract could be signed in November, after the National Security Council makes a final decision on the purchase, Kasciunas said. He did not specify how many tanks, what specific model, or how much they would cost.

Lithuania is a member of both NATO and the European Union. The Baltic country borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia's ally Belarus, and sees Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a direct threat to its national security. 

The government in Vilnius has therefore increased military spending and is massively upgrading its army. An armored brigade of the German army is also to be permanently stationed in Lithuania.

A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih hit a five-storey
building housing the regional police department, killing at least one person and injuring five others, officials said.

The police said a rescue operation was underway. Several people are feared buried under the rubble, officials said.

The body of a woman was found under the rubble, the regional governor Serhiy Lysak later said on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that 23 private houses, three apartment blocks and an educational facility had been damaged in the attack.

Krivyi Rih is an important industrial center and the birthplace of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Romania's national airspace was breahced by a Russian drone for less than three minutes during an overnight assault on neighboring Ukraine, according to the Romanian Defense Ministry.

NATO member Romania scrambled four fighter planes to monitor the attack from the air, the ministry said, adding that military personnel were looking for potential fragments.

Russian drones have violated Romanian airspace in the past.

The Ukrainian Danube port of Izmail, which lies on the Romanian border, was attacked overnight by Russian drones. Three people were killed, according to local officials. 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said on social media that it had shot down 24 out of 32 drones during Russia's overnight attack. Russian forces also used one ballistic missile and two cruise missiles during the attack, the air force added.

Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob cautioned against making hasty decisions in the face of German doubts about Ukraine's use of Western long-range weapons on Russian soil.

This was in response to a question about the potential use of long-range weapons that Western countries have supplied to Ukraine.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Golob emphasized the importance of considering all options.

He acknowledged that any country possessing such weapons  "will make the decision on their own, and we will try to respect that."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly ruled out supplying long-range precision weapons to Ukraine, regardless of the decisions of other NATO allies. 

A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian town of Izmail killed three people, a man and two women, and injured 11, including a child, authorities in the Odesa region said.

The "large-scale terrorist attack" in the early hours of Friday also caused several fires in addition to damaging homes, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

The fires have already been extinguished, Kiper added.

Izmail is one of the most important Ukrainian ports on the Danube.

The US Republican candidate for president  Donald Trump said he would meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

"I will be meeting with him tomorrow [Friday] morning at around 9:45 in Trump Tower," the former president told reporters in New York.

Zelenskyy has reportedly extended his stay in the US to attend the meeting.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy met US President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. They both reiterated support for Ukraine, with Harris seemingly taking jabs at Trump's earlier comments that Kyiv should cut a deal and end the war.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to fast track funding to Ukraine during the remaining months in his term.

Biden made the remarks as he announced a new military aid package of more than $8 billion (€7.2 billion) to Ukraine. 

"Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way," Biden said. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Biden that "we deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side."

Zelenskyy was due to meet Republican candidate for president Donald Trump on Friday. Trump has characterized US aid to Ukraine as a waste of money.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris met Zelenskyy on Thursday, saying US support for Ukraine was in "strategic interest" of the country.

She acknowledged that there were some in the US who would "force Ukraine to give up large parts of sovereign territory," saying that such proposals were not "proposals for peace" but rather "for surrender."

Her comments seemed to be in reference to Trump and his running mate JD Vance, who suggested Kyiv should quickly cut a deal to end the war. She described such suggestions as "dangerous and unacceptable."

dh/lo (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)