President of the United States Donald Trump escalated his feud with Voldymee Zelensky, calling the Ukrainian president a “an election-free dictator.”
In a long and poignant post on the truthful social of his social media platform on Wednesday, Trump accused Zelensky of making us money and engaging the country in endless conflicts.
“Think about it. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a modestly successful comedian, spoke to the United States of America to spend $350 billion and failed to enter a war that he couldn’t win. Star, wrote.
The US President continued, hinting that Zelensky had an impure motive that he wanted Ukraine to continue fighting for its territory.
“Zelenskyy will probably want to continue with the ‘gravy train’,” Trump said using an idiom that suggests Ukraine is using US funds.
Social media posts have been marked against Ukrainian president U.S. allies as they are trying to repel Trump’s most barbed wire rhetoric, a full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Ta.
But as he and his government approach Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Trump’s overall stance has become increasingly hostile to Zelensky.
Already, European allies have responded with anger over Trump’s latest remarks, saying his comments are harmful to the peace process.
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, for example, responded with force to allegations that Zelensky was a “dictator” to prevent elections during the war.
“Denying President Zelensky’s democratic justification is simply wrong and dangerous,” Scholz told the newspaper Spiegel shortly after Trump’s post.
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the head of the elected Ukrainian province. The fact that proper elections cannot be held in the middle of the war is in line with the requirements of the Ukrainian constitution and election law. No one should argue if not. Not that.”
Trends to increase hostility
The war in Ukraine celebrated its third anniversary on February 24th, and there is no clear ending.
However, when he takes office last January 20th, Trump promises to become “peacemaker and unity,” implying that he can lead global conflicts to a swift conclusion.
On February 12th, he made a surprising announcement on social media. He concluded a “long and very productive call” with President Putin and agreed to “start negotiations soon” to end the war in Ukraine.
The announcement came shortly after the prisoner exchange between the US and Russia, and at first Zelenkie expressed optimism about the dialogue.
However, within hours, the atmosphere was exacerbated by Zelenskyy and his European allies, accusing the US of cutting them completely out of peace talks.
This week, US officials traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet Russian officials for the first high-level consultation between the two countries since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. There were no Ukrainians or European representatives participating in the dialogue.
Trump and Putin also confirmed plans to visit each other’s countries in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Trump and his officials have put pressure on Ukraine to make concessions.
For example, last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses told a meeting of European allies that it was a “fantastic goal” to seek the return of all territories dating back to 2014 when Russia invaded the Crimea Peninsula. .
“We will only end this catastrophic war and establish durable peace by combining the strength of the Allied power with a realistic assessment of the battlefield,” Hegses said.
“We want sovereignty and prosperous Ukraine, like you. But we must start by realizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 border is an unrealistic purpose. Not there.”
Trump repeated those feelings to himself, accusing Zelensky of launching the invasion himself on Tuesday.
“You’d never started it before. You could have made a deal, Trump said in a statement from the Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida.
He also argued that Zelensky would only blame him for being excluded from peace negotiations.
“I heard today, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you were there for three years. You should have finished it,” Trump said.
Russia has long argued that a full-scale Ukraine invasion is necessary to protect civilians and prevent the country from joining the NATO alliance.
Putin and his allies have mentioned Cold War-era comments from US officials who say NATO will expand east “not a inch” but such policies have been formalized or written down. I’ve never done it.
However, Ukraine and its European allies accused the invasion of unattacked acts of attack. This reflects Putin’s territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe.
On Tuesday, in the wake of Trump’s latest social media post, German Foreign Minister Annalena Bearbock argued that the only real dictatorship lies in Russia.
“Looking at the real world, rather than simply firing tweets, you know who must live in a dictatorial situation in Europe,” she said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andri Sibikha also wrote on social media in response to Trump’s pressure: We defend the right to exist. ”
Even domestic critics were shaking with the latest social media Fujirad. On the Senate floor, Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen echoed from the discussion of the upcoming US budget bill to address Trump’s allegations against Zelensky.
“President, this is an embarrassing moment for the United States,” Van Hollen said. “We stood up for freedom. We stood up for democracy. We stood up for the rule of law, and now President Trump has been in the world under the bus and has been in Ukraine and It throws people who love freedom.”
Al Jazeera correspondent Kimberly Halkett said Trump’s latest comments on Zelensky were examples of his “classic bullying” tactics.
“He is trying to reduce Ukrainian leadership by referring to his previous profession. He was a comedian before becoming Ukrainian leader,” she said.
Under former President Joe Biden’s term, the United States stood firm in Ukraine. This includes sending billions of dollars of military equipment and aid to war-torn countries.
But Halkett warned that Trump’s latest remarks mark a “surprising reversal” of US policy.
“What the Biden administration did before was to isolate Russia,” she said. “The Trump administration is doing the exact opposite right now.”
However, in his post Tuesday, Trump accused Zelensky of playing Biden “like a fiddle.” He cast himself on his own as something unique that could ensure peace in Ukraine.
“We are well negotiating the end of the war with Russia, all of which acknowledges ‘Trump’ and that what the Trump administration can do,” the US president wrote.
He also offered ominous words to his Ukrainian counterparts. “The unelected dictator, Zelenskyy, can move fast, or he will not leave the country.”
Zelenskyy warns that it will be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to survive a continuous Russian attack without US support, and he will make a unified US-European front against the attack I asked.
In his own social media post on Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated his position that Putin should not be trusted, urging Europe and the United States to cooperate in seeking a resolution to war.
“Putin can’t deceive everyone again,” Zelensky writes. “Before potential negotiations, all partners need to clearly understand that strong security assurances are a priority that perpetuates peace.”
He confirmed that US envoy Keith Kellogg had arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday for further consultations.