Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandr Merezhko announced on Wednesday that he would formally nominate American President-elect Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025.
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was issued in October to an organization of survivors of the American atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Quoted in the Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrinform, Merezhko explained that he believed Trump merited the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East during his first term, particularly the signing of the Abraham Accords that normalized Israel’s relationship with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He also credited Trump with making a “significant contribution” to defending Ukraine.
“First of all, during his first presidential term, Donald Trump contributed to the conclusion of the so-called Abraham Accords,” he said. “These are the agreements that strengthened peace in the Middle East and contributed to stability in this region as a whole.”
“Secondly, in my opinion, he made a significant contribution to the fight against Russian aggression and strengthened Ukraine’s military capabilities,” Merezhko continued. “In fact, Trump became the first U.S. president to begin providing military and technical assistance to Ukraine.”
The lawmaker, who is the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s foreign policy committee, expressed hope that Trump, upon returning to the White House in January, would avoid “appeasing the aggressor,” by which he meant pressuring Ukraine to give up territory to Russia. Russia launched a “special operation” to invade Ukraine and oust democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022 that resulted in strongman Vladimir Putin claiming sovereignty over a significant portion of Ukrainian territory.
Merezhko is a member of Zelensky’s party, Servant of the People, named after the television comedy that made Zelensky, a professional actor, famous. He expressed optimism that Trump would help Ukraine achieve peace and recognized that, during his first term, the president-elect pressured western Europe to end its business dealings enriching Russia, particularly the now defunct Nord Stream 2 project, which would have dramatically expanded Russia’s market share of natural gas in Western Europe and which Trump sanctioned. Outgoing President Joe Biden lifted sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 project in summer 2021, opening the door for the full-scale invasion.
Speaking to the Kyiv Independent, Merezshko conceded that the nomination was also “an opportunity to attract Trump’s attention so that he could help Ukraine to survive.”
Zelensky maintained a friendly relationship with Trump during his first term in office, which overlapped with Zelensky’s first two years in power. Despite this, many in mainstream media have attempted to depict the two as being at odds with each other because Trump has questioned Biden’s policies regarding the Ukraine war, particularly the lavish expenditures on weaponry and other defense for Ukraine with no emphasis on diplomatic solutions. Zelensky appeared to dispel any reports that he would not welcome a return for Trump by becoming one of the first world leaders to congratulate him after the November election.
Following Trump’s win this year, Zelensky announced that he had an “excellent call” with the president-elect and expressed full support for Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine.
“In general, it was extremely important for us in Ukraine and for all of Europe to consistently hear the words of the then-45th President of the United States about ‘peace through strength,’” Zelensky said. “And if this becomes the policy principle of the 47th President of the United States, America and the whole world will undoubtedly benefit from it.”
In conversation with Breitbart News in August, Trump said that he hoped to bring peace to Ukraine even before his inauguration.
“I know both heads of the countries,” Trump explained. “I know President Putin very well. I want to see the death stopping. There’s death and there’s destruction. They are destroying the whole fabric of a certain part of the world. I want to get it negotiated, and get it done.
“You look at the heritage of the country—the cities are mostly knocked down,” Trump continued. “They’re flattened. They’re just totally flattened. … The country has been devastated. So I want to get it solved and I will be able to get it solved. And I’d like to do it before I get to the White House after I’m president-elect.”
Trump has been discussed as a potential Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and even winner, repeatedly in the past.
In 2018, then-President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said Trump “should win the Nobel Peace Prize” for his efforts in improving diplomacy with communist North Korea. Trump became the first American president to set foot in North Korea in 2019 and met with dictator Kim Jong-un on three occasions before talks with Pyongyang stalled.
In 2020, Trump was formally nominated for the Peace Prize by several European lawmakers. Magnus Jacobson of Sweden’s Christian Democrats Party nominated Trump for the prize in recognition of his administration’s work to improve relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedde also nominated Trump that year for the Abraham Accords.
In November of that year, 14 European lawmakers issued a letter nominating Trump ”for his courage and commitment to the cause of peace in the Middle East, the Balkans, and on the Korean Peninsula.”