Former President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday for the first time in five years. He complained about his impeachment in 2019 and said that if re-elected, he would work to end the war between Russia and Ukraine with a deal “that is good for both sides.” .”

“We will work intensively with both parties to resolve and resolve this matter,” Trump said as he stood next to Zelensky and spoke to a small group of reporters before the closed session. “It has to come to an end. At some point it has to come to an end. He went through hell. His country has gone through hell.”

Trump said the two leaders had “a very good relationship, and, as you know, I also have a very good relationship with (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin.” Zelensky added that he hoped the relationship continue to be good.

“It takes two to tango, and we will,” Trump replied.

After their meeting, Trump told Fox News that he had not changed his position on the war. “We both want this to end, we both want a fair deal to be done,” he said.

Trump said the war was a “complicated puzzle” and when asked what a fair deal would mean, he said it was “too early to tell.”

In his comments before the meeting began, the former president railed against his impeachment in 2019 as a result of the now infamous phone conversation he had with Zelensky in July of that year.

During the July call, Trump asked Zelensky about opening an investigation into President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Various officials, including the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, said that Trump withheld aid to Ukraine despite demanding that Ukraine’s government investigate the Bidens.

“It was a hoax, just a hoax by the Democrats that we won,” Trump said of the impeachment effort that Zelensky sided with on Friday. Trump has long denied wrongdoing and was acquitted in his Senate trial.

He claimed Zelensky said Trump had done nothing wrong in their phone call and said the Ukrainian president “said it loud and clear and the impeachment hoax died right there.” He praised Zelensky for being “like a piece of steel.”

In a brief speech, Zelensky said he believed he and Trump shared a view that Ukraine must prevail against Russia and acknowledged the importance of the U.S. election. “We understand that after November we hope that the strength of the United States will be very strong,” he said.

Hours later, one of Trump’s top surrogates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke out against further support for Ukraine at a Trump rally in Walker, Michigan. Kennedy suggested that NATO provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and argued that the U.S. should no longer aid Zelensky and his people.

“Don’t you think we could use the money here in this country?” Kennedy said, drawing loud applause.

Kennedy praised Trump’s handling of his meeting with Zelensky, saying: “I know what Donald Trump was thinking when he had that meeting. He thought, I want to turn this guy around, hold him by the legs, and shake all the money out of his pockets and hope it adds up to $208 billion… That’s what the Democrats gave him, and We have to bring this money home.”

It was the first time since Trump’s impeachment that Trump and Zelensky met in person. They last met in person when Trump was president, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019.

The last phone conversation between the two was in July, when the Ukrainian leader congratulated the former president on his GOP nomination for president and condemned the Trump assassination attempt earlier that month.

Their meeting comes amid concerns about Ukraine’s future and its defense against Russian aggression and the major impact the outcome of the US elections will have on the fate of the war, as well as congressional divisions over it instead of whether aid should continue to be provided to Ukraine.

Trump has expressed that his approach to the conflict would be very different from that of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump had previously suggested he might not be in favor of continuing to arm and provide aid to Ukraine, departing from years of U.S. policy. Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has also made it clear he opposes offering ongoing funding.

Friday’s meeting between Zelensky and Trump almost didn’t happen after backlash over the Ukrainian president’s comments to the New Yorker that Vance was “too radical.” In the same interview, Zelensky also expressed doubts that Trump knows how to address Ukraine’s conflict with Russia. “I feel like Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he could.” think “He knows how,” Zelensky said, later adding: “The idea that the world should end this war at the expense of Ukraine is unacceptable.”

Trump has expressed confidence that he could end the war but has never offered specifics about how he would do so, and his support for Ukraine, which has received significant funding from the U.S. since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 , is ambiguous.

Asked at a news conference Thursday whether he would encourage Ukraine to give up land in exchange for a peace deal, Trump deflected, saying the war would never have happened if he had been elected president in 2020.

“Anyone discussing how Ukraine should compromise or negotiate territory with Putin to end the war “should put themselves in our shoes,” Ukrainian Attorney General Andriy Kostin said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” “You must first ask the Ukrainian victims and survivors of this war what they think of such compromises,” he said.

At a campaign rally in Georgia on Tuesday, Trump said: “Every time Zelensky comes to the United States, he goes home with $100 billion. I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world. But we’re stuck in this war – unless I do it.” “I will do it. I’ll negotiate it.”

Earlier this year, the former president appeared open to an idea from some Republican senators: a loan to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian rare earth minerals.

And if the 2024 elections again divide Congress, it could still be difficult to pass additional aid because many Republicans have been critical of previous packages.

On Thursday, Zelensky met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House, where Biden announced a new aid package for Ukraine. Zelensky also met at the White House with Harris, who expressed her unwavering support for helping Ukraine win the war.