“US President Donald Trump, during negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the White House in August, unexpectedly called former “Miss Ukraine” Oleksandra Nikolayenko and organized her conversation with the Ukrainian leader.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: publication of The New York Times, reports “European Truth”
Details: As described by the interlocutors of the publication, the conversation took place after Zelensky arrived together with several European leaders to Washington on August 18after the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska, with the aim of convincing the US president of the danger of concessions to Russia.
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At one point, Trump remarked to his aides that when he was the owner of the Miss Universe pageant, Ukrainian contestants were often the most beautiful, so he exclaimed, “Ukrainian women are beautiful.” “I know, I married one of them,” Zelensky replied.
Trump explained that his old friend, Las Vegas tycoon Phil Ruffin, married former Miss Ukraine Oleksandra Nikolayenko, and the president himself met her at the Miss Universe pageant. So he called Ruffin, who handed the phone to his wife, and Trump did the same for Zelensky, and for the next 10 to 15 minutes the room fell silent as the two spoke in Ukrainian.
“You could feel how the atmosphere in the room changed,” said an official who was present there. “The temperature dropped. Everyone was laughing. It created a human connection. It was something like a fusion of thoughts. It made Zelensky more human for Trump.”
A month later, in New York at the opening of the UN General Assembly, Trump called Zelensky a “great man” who is “fighting a hell of a fight.”
Read the details of the August meeting at the White House in the “EP” archival article: Convince Trump, force Putin. What Zelensky heard in the White House and what to expect next