US President Donald Trump has described Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator.” This increases a public war of words between the two leaders, which began when Trump wrongly accused Ukraine of initiating the conflict with Russia.
Trump’s charge, made on his social media network Truth Social, came hours after Zelensky accused him of spreading Russian disinformation.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelensky refuted various erroneous statements made by the US president on Tuesday, while emphasizing Ukraine’s view that a deal to halt the war required 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 that he wants the war to end as soon as possible, even if it means more territorial losses for Ukraine.
To the horror of Kyiv and its supporters, Trump has occasionally endorsed the Kremlin’s narrative and blamed Ukraine and NATO for the crisis, even claiming that Ukraine “may become Russian someday.”
But Trump’s support for Russia extends much beyond rhetoric. Last week, the president raised eyebrows by scheduling a 90-minute phone discussion with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before meeting with Zelensky.
Then, on Tuesday, US and Russian officials held high-level negotiations in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to resolve the war in Ukraine, with Kyiv excluded.
Putin complimented the new US stance toward his country. Speaking at the talks in Riyadh, Putin stated that 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.
In Riyadh, the US and Russia agreed to appoint high-level teams to discuss the conclusion of the war and to work to rebuild diplomatic channels.
Zelensky emphasized on Tuesday that Ukraine was dissatisfied with the exclusion. He stated that, while any country has the right to negotiate bilateral matters, the US’s direct negotiations with Russia “helped Putin out of his long isolation.”During the Biden administration, the United States was one of Ukraine’s closest allies, supplying the country with military aid worth tens of billions of dollars.
But Trump has made it clear that he believes the US should no longer contribute aid to Ukraine without receiving something in return.
Earlier this month, he proposed that the US gain access to Ukraine’s largest mineral resources in exchange for help.
On Tuesday, Zelensky stated that the US had asked Ukraine to “give away” 50% of its rare minerals in exchange for no security guarantees. He said he rejected that idea, saying: “I cannot, I cannot sell our state.”
Trump repeatedly makes bogus statements. The original protest from Kyiv about being left out of the discussions provoked Trump’s rant 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 Kremlin and its sympathizers have long maintained the erroneous idea that Ukraine launched the war.The crisis began in 2014, when Russia unlawfully invaded Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula, and began supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow then began a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, invading the smaller neighbor at night, bringing tanks across the border, bombarding Ukrainian cities, and sending special forces into Kyiv to assassinate Zelensky.
However, Trump did not stop wondering who began the war in Ukraine.Trump appeared to challenge Zelensky’s legitimacy, repeating a position frequently used by the Kremlin itself.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort, incorrectly claiming that Zelensky’s approval rating was “at 4%.”
Zelensky received almost 73% of the vote in the second round of the 2019 presidential election.
While his mandate was set to expire in May, no fresh elections were held because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia’s aggressive invasion. Martial law prevents elections.
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