Relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump deteriorated rapidly Wednesday as Zelenskyy said Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” and Trump responded by calling Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections.”
Zelenskyy said that, while he respected the U.S. leader, he “would like Trump’s team to be more truthful.” He made the comments shortly before he was expected to meet with Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, who arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Kellogg will meet Zelenskyy and military commanders as the U.S. shifts its policy away from years of trying to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin. American and Russian diplomats met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday in talks that sidelined Ukraine and European officials.
Trump suggested on Tuesday that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week. Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.
In comments to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “You’ve been there for three years,” referring to concerns that Ukraine had been excluded from talks between Russia and the U.S.
“You should’ve never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments have also vexed some European officials.
“We don’t understand the logic very well,” French government spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters, describing “the diverse, varied and often incomprehensible comments by President Trump.”
French President Emmanuel Macron was to hold a video conference on Ukraine later Wednesday with leaders from more than 15 countries, mostly European nations, “with the aim of gathering all partners interested in peace and security” on the continent, his office said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday he would be participating in the Macron-led conference.
Asked how Canada and its partners should respond to U.S. and Russian talks on Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that nothing about Ukraine should be decided without Ukraine. He also stressed that Canada will stand with Ukraine in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘illegal, immoral, unjust’ violations of the international order.
Trudeau did not mention Trump by name when asked by a reporter at a Montreal event “how damaging” the U.S. president’s comments assigning blame to Ukraine for starting the war were. Trudeau said defending Ukraine was vital in order to maintain the rules-based order “that keeps us all safe around the world” since the end of the Second World War.
“That is why Canada and our allies are unequivocal in standing up against Vladimir Putin’s illegal, immoral, unjust violations of the international order,” he said.
Front Burner31:38Has Trump killed the U.S.-Europe alliance?
Putin says U.S. talks were ‘very positive’
During the news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump also said Zelenskyy’s approval rating in Ukraine stood at four per cent. Zelenskyy replied in a news conference in Kyiv that “we have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia.”
Public opinion polls have been hard to conduct in Ukraine, given the fighting. According to one poll, Zelenskyy was more unpopular before the war broke out, with strong evidence that Ukrainians rallied around their leader as the early 2022 invasion began. While that support appears to have slipped over the long course of the war, more respondents in a December survey said they trusted Zelenskyy than distrusted him.
Trump also suggested Ukraine should hold elections, which have been postponed due to the war and the subsequent imposition of martial law, in accordance with Ukraine’s constitution. Ukraine would have been due to hold elections in spring 2024, but the safety of international monitors and citizens, many who have been displaced, couldn’t be guaranteed.
After Zelenskyy made his comments, Trump lashed out in a social media post.
“A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform.
A relentless onslaught in eastern areas by Russia’s bigger army is grinding down Ukrainian forces, which are slowly but steadily being pushed backward at some points on the 1,000-kilometre front line.
Putin, who did not take part in Riyadh, characterized Tuesday’s talks with the U.S. as “very positive.” He said officials who took part in the talks described the American delegation to him as “completely different people who were open to the negotiation process without any bias, without any condemnation of what was done in the past,” and determined to work together with Moscow.
Putin added that he would be “pleased” to meet Trump but noted that Trump has acknowledged that a Ukrainian settlement could take longer than he initially hoped.
Schumer slams Trump
In Ukraine, Kellogg said his visit to Kyiv was “a chance to have some good, substantial talks.”
“Part of my mission is to sit and listen,” the retired three-star general said. Kellogg said he would convey what he learns on his visit to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to “ensure that we get this one right.”
Last week, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth signalled that Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO in order to ward off Russian aggression after reaching a possible peace agreement won’t happen.
Zelenskyy says any settlement will require U.S. security commitments to keep Russia at bay.
During his first term, Trump suggested to Zelenskyy in a phone call that the Ukrainian leader should co-operate in efforts to discredit Democrat Joe Biden. U.S. aid to Ukraine was delayed, and Democrats impeached Trump for what they said was a quid pro quo, but Trump was subsequently acquitted in the Senate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would like the Trump administration to have ‘more truth’ about Ukraine, after the U.S. president blamed his country for Russia’s 2022 invasion. ‘Unfortunately, he lives in this disinformation space,’ Zelenskyy said.
Trump’s comments about Ukraine also drew some criticism domestically. Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said it was “disgusting to see an American president turn against one of our friends and openly side with a thug like Vladimir Putin,” while Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, said on social media that, “when it comes it comes to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I blame Putin above all others.”
But Graham, a longtime ally of the U.S. president, also added that Trump “is Ukraine’s best hope to end his war honourably and justly.”
