US President Donald Trump yesterday denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “a dictator without elections” and said he had better move fast to secure a peace or he would have no country left.
Trump spoke hours after Zelenskiy hit back at his suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskiy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said no one could force his country to give in. “We will defend our right to exist,” Sybiha said on X.
Zelenskiy’s five-year term was supposed to end in 2024 but presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion.
Russia has seized some 20 per cent of Ukraine and is slowly but steadily gaining more territory in the east. Moscow said its “special military operation” responded to an existential threat posed by Kyiv’s pursuit of Nato membership. Ukraine and the West call Russia’s action an imperialist land grab.
Zelenskiy, who met Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv yesterday, said he would like Trump’s team to have “more truth” about Ukraine, a day after Trump said Ukraine “should never have started” the conflict with Russia. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s assertion that his approval rating was just 4pc was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail.
“We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelenskiy told Ukrainian TV.
The latest poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, from early February, says 57pc of Ukrainians trust Zelenskiy.
Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia, ending Washington’s bid to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine with a Trump-Putin phone call and talks between senior US and Russian officials.
Trump said he may meet Putin this month. The Kremlin said such a meeting could take longer to prepare.
In Moscow, Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine would not be barred from peace negotiations but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.
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