Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the United States leadership present and, one way or another, future, meeting with incumbent President Joe Biden, Biden's vice president and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, and the Republican candidate Donald Trump, all within 24 hours.

Ahead of his meeting with President Zelensky, President Biden announced an $8 billion military aid package for Ukraine.

However, no major news arose after the meeting in the Oval Office, and the Biden administration still has not granted Ukraine permission to use long-range weapons deep inside Russian territory.

Meeting with Zelenskyy, President Biden said: "Let me be clear, Russia will not prevail in the war. Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail and we'll continue to stand by Ukraine every step of the way."

A few hours later, Zelensky met with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris is the Democratic candidate for November's election, and consistently contrasted herself on the Ukraine issue with the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump.

The vice president said: "There are some in my country, who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory. Who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality. And would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations. These proposals are the same as those of Putin."

Less than 24 hours after that, on Friday morning, Zelenskyy was in any case shaking hands with Donald Trump in New York.

Zelenskyy had long sought an opportunity to speak with Trump face-to-face, but up until Thursday evening, the likelihood of a meeting had remained highly uncertain.

Trump this week repeatedly hit out at U.S. aid to Ukraine, claiming that Zelenskyy refuses to make a deal with Russia that would end the war.

The Ukrainian president's recent comments have also angered Trump, but in any case, the pair met, with Trump setting out his stall about what might happen in relation to Ukraine and Russia, should he become president on November 5.

He said: "I guess 37 days left and we're leading in the polls, so we'll see how it all works out. Hopefully, it'll work out, but if it does we're going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settlement, and get it worked out. It has to end, at some point it has to end."

Trump famously met with Putin in Helsinki for a summit in summer 2018, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, though after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the shadow war in eastern Ukraine. President Biden and Putin met in Geneva for a summit in June 2021.

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