US President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “a dictator,” escalating a public war of words between the two leaders that started when Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia.
Trump’s accusation, posted on his social media network Truth Social, came just hours after Zelensky accused him of repeating Russian disinformation.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelensky pushed back on several unfounded claims the US president made on Tuesday, while reinforcing Ukraine’s position that a deal to end the war needed its involvement.
“Unfortunately, President Trump – I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us – unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky said.
Trump has made it clear he wants the war to end as soon as possible – even if it means further territorial losses for Ukraine. And much to the horror of Kyiv and its allies, Trump has at times adopted Kremlin’s narrative and blamed Ukraine and NATO for the conflict, even saying that Ukraine “may be Russian some day.”
But Trump’s boosting of Russia goes well beyond rhetoric. The president raised many eyebrows last week when opting to hold a 90-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before speaking to Zelensky.
Then on Tuesday, US and Russian officials held high-level talks on ending the war in Ukraine in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, excluding Kyiv from the meeting.
Putin praised this new US attitude towards his country. Speaking about the talks in Riyadh, Putin said he was told the atmosphere was “friendly.”
“There were completely different people on the American side, who were open to the negotiation process without any bias, without any condemnation of what had been done in the past,” Putin added.
The US and Russia agreed in Riyadh to appoint high-level teams to negotiate the end of the war and said they were working to reestablish diplomatic channels.
Zelensky reiterated on Tuesday Ukraine was not happy with the exclusion, saying that while any country has the right to discuss bilateral issues, the fact that the US held direct talks with Russia “helped Putin out of his long isolation.”
The US was one of Ukraine’s closest allies under the Biden administration, providing the country with tens of billions worth of military aid. But Trump has made it clear that he thinks the US should no longer send aid to Ukraine without getting anything in return.
Earlier this month, he suggested the US should get access to Ukraine’s mineral richest in exchange for aid. Zelensky said on Tuesday that the US has asked Ukraine to “give away” 50% of its rare minerals, without offering any security guarantees in exchange. He said he rejected that idea, saying: “I cannot, I cannot sell our state.”
It was Kyiv’s initial complaint about being shut out of the talks that sparked Trump’s tirade of falsehoods on Tuesday.
Speaking late on Tuesday, Trump said: “Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited. Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal.”
The incorrect claim that Ukraine somehow started the war has long been repeated by the Kremlin and its supporters. The conflict began in 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula, and began sponsoring pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, attacking its smaller neighbour at night, sending tanks across the border, bombing Ukrainian cities and sending special forces into Kyiv to assassinate Zelensky. (CNN)
