President of the United States Donald Trump calls his Ukrainian Voldymi Zelenkie “dictator” a “dictator” as the rift between them deepens in the peace negotiations of the Ukrainians.
After Ukrainian leaders challenged his claim that Ukraine had started the war, Trump’s latest broadside against Zelensky came. Zelensky also opposed his exclusion from Russia’s talks held in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh on Tuesday.
In a late online post on Wednesday, and in a speech in Miami on the same day, Trump made a scathing attack on Ukrainian leaders, accusing him of making us money and engaging the country in an endless conflict. did.
This is the war of words between Trump and Zelensky and how it will affect the Ukrainian Peace Initiative.
What did Trump say about Zelensky?
In a post on Wednesday on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that “moderately successful comedian” Zelenskyy “talking to spend $350 billion on the US and going to a war that can’t be won I wrote, and I had to start.’
Regarding the funding paid to Ukraine, he added:
Trump added that Zelensky “refusing to vote, very low in Ukrainian polls, and all he was good at was playing “like a fiddle” Biden.” He said Zelensky did a “terrifying job” as a leader in Ukraine and considered him a “no election dictator.”
“In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating the end of the war with Russia, acknowledging that all this can be done by “Trump” and the Trump administration. Biden never attempts, Europe can’t bring peace, and Zelenkey will probably want to continue with the “gravy train.” ”
On Wednesday, during the Saudi Arabia Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute summit in Miami, Trump thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting a talk about Ukraine in which the US and Russian authorities attended.
On Tuesday, diplomats from Russia and the US held their first in-person meeting since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago. After four hours of discussion, both sides agreed to form a team to tackle Europe’s most deadly conflict since World War II. They also agreed to revive diplomatic relations that have descended on the historic low levels following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Why is Trump saying this and what else did he say?
Trump’s comments came the day after Zelensky said he lived in a “Russian-made disinformation space” about the war in Ukraine.
“The reason Donald Trump is doing this is because he is famous for his pale skin. And he’s not happy with the comments Volodymyr Zelenskyy made before,” says Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent Kimberly Halkett said.
On Tuesday, Trump accused Ukraine of starting a war, saying, “I heard today, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited.” Well, you were there for three years, you should have finished it… you should have never started it. You could have made a deal. ”
He also argued that Ukraine should hold elections. He said without evidence that Zelenskyy has a 4% approval rating.
Some analysts say the pushback from Zelenskyy came after Trump repeatedly talked about Russia in the Ukrainian War and removed Kiev from the Riyadh talks on Tuesday.
The word war between Trump and Zelensky has recently escalated against the backdrop of talks to end the Ukrainian war, but hostility has been brewed between the two for many years.
During Trump’s first term in September 2019, he hopes Zelenkey will work with US lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate political rival Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. did. Trump allegedly tried to interfere with Ukrainian prosecutors in connection with his son. This was when it was allegedly that Hunter had accepted bribes from the Kyiv-based company Burisma. Hunter pleaded guilty to a tax evasion case, but was pardoned by Biden in December 2024 several months later.
Despite criticising Ukrainian leaders on the campaign trail, Trump met Zelensky a few months before the election at Trump Tower’s New York base to discuss ways to end the war.
What did Zelenskyy say?
“There is evidence that these numbers are being debated between the US and Russia. That means President Trump… unfortunately lives in this disinformation field,” Zelensky told Ukrainian television on Tuesday. He spoke in the context of Trump’s comments on the approval rating.
The war of words between the two leaders escalated after Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and agreed to hold a meeting with Moscow without involvement from Kiev and Europe.
Zelenskyy argued that Ukraine, along with European countries, needs to represent Riyadh’s speech.
Trump’s overture to Putin surprised European leaders who believe that Russian leaders are unreliable. They fear that Ukrainian trade without them will make Europe vulnerable to Russian attacks.
On Wednesday, Zelensky accused the Trump administration of seizing Moscow from segregation. He said Russia cannot be trusted.
“This is not positive for Ukraine. What it does is that they are separating Putin from isolation. And the Russians are happy because the debate focuses on them.”
Is Trump’s claim true?
Zelenskyy’s five-year term of office was scheduled to end in May 2024, but the election was suspended after martial law was declared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Eastern European countries.
The numbers Trump cited in terms of aid to Ukraine are inconsistent with data collected by research institutions.
As of December 2024, European countries had sent around $138 billion to Ukraine, and the US had sent around $120 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
In regards to Zelenskyy’s approval rating at the end of 2024, 52% of Ukrainians said they trusted him, according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv Institute for International Sociology (KIIS).
Trump’s claim that Ukraine started a war is also untrue. Russia sent troops into Ukraine as part of what is called “special military operations,” and then captured almost 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
What is the diplomatic meaning?
Zelenskyy will meet Trump’s special envoy of Ukraine-Russian war, Keith Kellogg, on Thursday on Kyiv.
Ukraine has sought security assurances from Western allies against Russian attacks in the event of a peace deal. Kellogg, who arrived in Kiev on Wednesday, said he “understands the need for security assurances.”
It is difficult to speculate how the public feud between Zelensky and Trump will affect the outcome of the consultation, due to the unpredictable actions of the US president.
However, the US policy shift towards Ukraine under Trump has affected transatlantic ties, with European leaders competing for response.
What was your reaction?
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz told the Spiegel newspaper:
“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.”
According to the BBC, British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer called Zelenkiy on Wednesday to reaffirm his support for the Ukrainian leader.
It was completely reasonable to suspend elections during wartime, as Britain did during World War II,” the spokesman added.