Ukraine, Trump: 'I can find agreement in 24 hours'. Zelensky: "Come to Kiev and do it"

"I know Putin, I know Zelensky. I'm going to resolve this even before I get into office." Donald Trump said this during a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, praising Viktor Orban as a great European leader and assuring that he will avoid World War III. The exit of the former US president now engaged in the Republican Party primaries for a new term in the White House in November's presidential election provoked an immediate reaction from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: "If he can really stop the war in one day, come to Kiev and do it." At yet another announcement by Trump (video), confident that he has the right recipe for "finding an agreement in 24 hours" on the war, the Kiev leader invited him to join him in the country at war with Russia: "Maybe he has a real idea and can share it with me."

Zelensky's is not a new exit, the controversy with Trump has been going on for months. But the Ukrainian leader's challenge carries risks, because although relegated - for now - to campaign slogans, Trump's statements reveal a clear disinterest in the Ukrainian resistance: his party has already put a spanner in the works for military aid funds for Ukraine in the US Congress. And the almost certain Republican candidate has already hinted that he wants to close - or at least reduce - the American taps for the country invaded by the Russians if he is re-elected.

Speaking in Davos earlier this week (video), Zelensky tried to stave off fears of a drop in military funding should Trump return, arguing that 'one man cannot change an entire nation'. And the official Ukrainian position remains one of openness, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasising Kiev's intention to 'work with whatever reality arises after the US elections'. But it is clear that a Republican victory would bring an entirely different air to the conflict, far removed from the tight embraces and promises of unwavering support of Biden and Zelensky.