Ukrainian MP who withdrew peace prize nomination for Donald Trump says US President is welcome in Kyiv

The Ukrainian MP who withdrew his nomination of Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize has urged the US President to visit Ukraine, saying Mr Trump was a “rockstar of politics” who would be widely welcomed in Kyiv.

Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People Party, said his Government had failed to prepare for Mr Trump’s re-election.

Mr Merezhko, Chair of the Ukrainian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, made rare criticism of his Government in an exclusive interview with the Latika Takes Podcast in Kyiv.

“I knew that Trump was going to be elected, maybe a year before it happened,” he said.

“So I was prepared for that, and I knew that from different sources and I felt that we needed to be prepared – it would be great for us at that time.

“Unfortunately, we missed this chance, but we should have established closer relations with him.

“I tried to do it. We had contacts, for example, with Heritage Foundation (and) Elbridge Colby, one of his supporters at that time.

“But it seems like our establishment was not quite prepared.”

Mr Merezhko nominated Mr Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize because of the US President’s stated wish to bring the war to an end.

Mr Trump had bragged on the campaign trail that he would end the conflict in 24 hours, but later said that promise was “obviously sarcastic.”

But he withdrew the nomination when Mr Trump appeared to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the US President has lately signalled positions more favourable to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he infamously clashed in the Oval Office.

This has included Mr Trump overriding Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon official who is reviewing AUKUS and halted supplies of weapons to Ukraine, as well as agreeing to sell Patriot Air Defence systems that can be used by Ukraine.

And First Lady Melania Trump has become a viral phenomena in Ukraine, after Mr Trump revealed that she played a pivotal role in exposing to her husband Vladimir Putin’s war crimes, such as bombing civilian targets, immediately after falsely reassuring the US President that he was genuine about a ceasefire.

Mr Merezhko said: “I don’t know how consistent he’s going to be … but I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic about this.”

The MP urged the US President, who spent the weekend at his golf estate in Scotland in the UK, to travel to Kyiv to understand the threat that Russia, aided by accomplices, North Korea, Iran and China, posed to Europe and the US.

“We have problems with those who have never been here,” he said.

“That’s why, by the way, it’s crucially important for President Trump himself to come to Ukraine.

“It would change a lot in his understanding.”

Asked if Ukrainians, who disliked Mr Trump’s treatment of President Zelensky in the Oval Office, would welcome the US President, who has been accused of favouring Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Merezhko was emphatic.

“Yeah, definitely, despite everything, he’s very popular in Ukraine,” he said.

“I’m sure that he will be greeted with huge enthusiasm because, he might be controversial, but he’s like a rock star of politics, and he’s popular, he’s a charismatic person.”

Mr Merezhko said Presidents Trump and Zelensky, who both entered politics from show business, shared a lot in common.

“It gives me hope that sometimes when people have a lot in common, they might have some misunderstandings, but on the other hand, they also can get along,” he said.

“To me the key to that is to have more communication between both presidents, if they had it in a systematic way, maybe even on a daily basis, there would, I’m sure that there wouldn’t be any problems like that.

“So, I do hope that he will come.”

China is Russia’s accomplice

Mr Merezkhov said Ukraine needed to show stronger support for Taiwan, saying it was “weird” that Kyiv did not have a representative in Taipei when Russia did.

He said that China had greenlit Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that President Xi Jinping was a “dictator” and “accomplice” in the killing of Ukrainians by also supplying Mr Putin’s war effort, through the sale of killer drone components and goods that can be used to make weapons.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently told the European Union’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas that China could not afford for Russia to lose the war.

President Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, recently told the Times of London that: “It’s strange that President Xi never meets with President Zelensky.”

He said he thought it was time President Xi met President Zelensky and said Chinese mercenaries had been caught fighting for Russia – something he said would have been approved by the CCP.

Mr Merezkhov said China’s role exposed that the war in Ukraine has been one against totalitarian regimes and not just two countries.

“If China wanted, it could stop Russia — they didn’t,” he said.

“It openly declares that China is not interested in the defeat of Russia.

“So it would be a mistake to view this war as only a war or one country against the other.

“We have two coalitions and against Ukraine, we have coalition, of Russia, China, North Korea, Belarus, and let’s not forget that, for example, such countries, as Cuba also providing, soldiers — mercenaries.”

“We’re fighting against a huge coalition of totalitarian or authoritarian regimes.”

He said it was for this reason that Ukraine needed to show more obvious support for Taiwan, the independently, democratically-ruled island that President Xi has said he wants to reunify with the mainland by 2027, and by force if necessary.

President Zelensky has been muted in his criticism of China, even though NATO, of which Ukraine wants to be a member, says Beijing is a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war.

Asked why Kyiv had been relatively silent on China’s role, Mr Merezhko said Ukraine had been “overly careful” when it came to China, Ukraine’s third-largest trading partner.

“I’m not sure whether it’s the correct path or not,” he said.

“Our hope was that China somehow could be helpful in terms of stopping Russia.

“Maybe it was naive, maybe it was an illusion.”

He said it was vital that Ukraine supported Taiwan’s struggle to remain free of a takeover by the Chinese Communist Party and said his country should follow the lead of Czechia and Lithuania, which have both sought stronger ties with Taiwan, including military cooperation.

On Sunday, Czechia’s President Petr Pavel visited the Dalai Lama in Ladakh, India.

“We don’t have even a representative Office of Taipei in Ukraine, which is weird because even Russia has it – Ukraine still doesn’t have it,” Mr Merezhko said.

“We need to be supported by other democracies, we need also to support other democracies.

“And when we support Taiwan, we send very strong signal that we are on the right side of not only history — democracy.

“I strongly believe in this democratic solidarity and we need to develop this.”

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was contacted for comment.