The simmering feud between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump escalated on Wednesday when Mr. Zelensky stated the American chief had been “caught in an internet of disinformation” from Russia and Mr. Trump mocked his counterpart in a put up full of falsehoods, calling him a “dictator with out elections” who had carried out a horrible job as president.
The pointed trade got here in the future after officers from the US and Russia opened talks to finish the combating in Ukraine that excluded the Ukrainian authorities. Hours after that assembly in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump advised that Ukraine had began the battle, a remark that introduced a robust rebuttal from Mr. Zelensky on Wednesday morning.
“I want to have extra fact with the Trump staff,” Mr. Zelensky stated in a number of the most overt criticism but of Mr. Trump and his view of the battle in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky, summoning reporters to his presidential workplace in Kyiv, a constructing nonetheless fortified with sandbags, stated that the U.S. president was residing in a “internet of disinformation.”
In a put up on his Fact Social account, Mr. Trump responded with a scathing assault on Mr. Zelensky.
“Consider it, a modestly profitable comic, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the US of America into spending $350 Billion {Dollars}, to enter a Battle that couldn’t be gained, that by no means needed to begin, however a Battle that he, with out the U.S. and “TRUMP,” won’t ever be capable of settle,” Mr. Trump wrote.
As he did in making his assertions a day earlier, he misrepresented verifiable info. America, as an illustration, has allotted $119 billion for support to Ukraine, in response to a analysis group in Germany, the Kiel Institute, not $350 billion.
Mr. Trump additionally advised that future safety of Ukraine wouldn’t be an American downside. “This Battle is much extra essential to Europe than it’s to us,” he wrote. “We’ve got an enormous, lovely Ocean as separation.”
The deepening feud threatens to undermine Ukraine’s battle effort and additional weaken its place within the peace talks which have already began between the U.S. and Russia — notably with out Kyiv’s involvement.
Mr. Trump’s fixation on the US being repaid for navy and monetary help over three years of battle may put a cease on any future support bundle to the war-torn nation. Ukraine has lengthy been depending on common American deliveries of air-defense weapons, shells and different sort of ammunition to maintain its battle towards Russia.
“Let’s be sincere: With out the U.S., it is going to be very tough for us,” Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the pinnacle of Ukraine’s navy intelligence company, stated on Wednesday.
Kyiv has pushed for a seat on the negotiating desk with Russia. However Mr. Trump’s portrayal of Moscow as a keen associate in peace talks, and his dismissal of Mr. Zelensky as an illegitimate and ineffective chief, dangers additional sidelining Ukraine.
In his social media put up Wednesday, Mr. Trump stated in a menacing tone that Mr. Zelensky had “higher transfer quick” to safe peace “or he isn’t going to have a Nation left.”
His feedback adopted up equally accusatory statements he made on Tuesday. Mr. Trump stated Ukraine “ought to have by no means began” the battle, and appeared to embrace what has been a Russian demand that Ukraine maintain elections as a needed step within the settlement talks. Elections have been suspended beneath martial regulation after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Mr. Trump additionally stated Tuesday that Mr. Zelensky’s approval ranking was 4 p.c. Mr. Zelensky stated that was not true, citing polls displaying far increased help. In one performed in December by the Kyiv Worldwide Institute of Sociology, for instance, 52 p.c of Ukrainians stated that they trusted his management.
“So, if anybody needs to interchange me proper now — that’s not going to occur,” Mr. Zelensky stated, referring to his approval rankings.
Mr. Trump’s false statements, Mr. Zelensky stated, stemmed from misinformation unfold by folks round him. “Such rhetoric doesn’t assist Ukraine — it solely helps in bringing Putin out of isolation,” he stated.
Till this week, Mr. Zelensky had walked a superb line of staking out Ukrainian positions whereas avoiding any suggestion of an open breach with the US, Ukraine’s most essential ally in a battle that’s nearing the three-year mark. However after the preliminary cease-fire talks between Russia and the US on Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky starkly laid out his refusal to just accept phrases negotiated with out Ukrainian participation.
His feedback on Wednesday — pushing again on Mr. Trump’s false assertions whereas refraining from direct criticism by attributing them to a broader disinformation bubble — have been consistent with his efforts to take care of a balancing act and preserve ties with the U.S.
On the information convention Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky was targeted and spoke with depth. He stated he was not personally ruffled by the negotiations with the Trump administration. “This isn’t my first dialogue or battle,” he stated. “I take it calmly.”
Russia, he stated, is clearly happy with the flip of diplomatic developments. “I believe Putin and the Russians are very glad, as a result of questions are mentioned with them,” Mr. Zelensky stated.
“Yesterday, there have been alerts of talking with them as victims,” he stated of the Trump officers’ tone towards the Russians, whose authorities set off the biggest battle in Europe since World Battle II, one which has killed or wounded about one million folks on each side. “That’s one thing new.”
Ukrainians, Mr. Zelensky stated, aren’t more likely to belief guarantees Russian negotiators provide in talks. “No person in Ukraine trusts Putin,” he stated.
Mr. Zelensky additionally laid out efforts to coordinate from allies safety ensures meant to forestall Russia from violating any cease-fire. This has been an overriding focus of Ukrainian diplomacy going into any peace talks.
For Russia, a continuation of the battle additionally carries prices, together with by the estimate of navy analysts a staggering toll of 1,000 troopers or extra killed or wounded day by day, in addition to punishing financial sanctions. Ukraine needs to commerce this strain on Russia for acceptance of a peacekeeping power or different assure of safety to forestall the battle, already the bloodiest in Europe in generations, from restarting.
Mr. Zelensky repeated that one choice can be membership in NATO, a chance that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has rejected and that the US has stated it doesn’t help. The Ukrainian chief additionally talked about sustaining the nation’s standing military of about a million troopers and a peacekeeping contingent from European international locations, or some mixture of those measures.
Mr. Putin on Wednesday praised the Trump administration officers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for having fostered a “very pleasant” environment. Not like previous American administrations, he advised, the Trump staff didn’t criticize Russia’s actions.
“On the American facet, there have been utterly completely different individuals who have been open to the negotiation course of with none bias, with none condemnation of what was carried out previously,” Mr. Putin stated, talking to reporters whereas on a go to to St. Petersburg.
Mr. Putin stated he appeared ahead to a gathering with Mr. Trump, however declined to present a date, cautioning that there was nonetheless numerous preparatory work to be carried out, “together with on the Ukrainian monitor.”
“I’ll be glad to satisfy with Donald,” he stated. “We haven’t seen one another shortly. However we’re in a scenario the place it’s not sufficient to satisfy simply to have tea or espresso and sit and speak in regards to the future.”
Mr. Putin dismissed fears that American allies in Europe have been being excluded from the U.S.-Russia talks, arguing that the 2 international locations had bilateral points to debate, such because the expiration of the New START nuclear arms management treaty subsequent 12 months.
“Why are they being hysterical?” Mr. Putin stated, apparently referring to the Europeans. “Hysteria is just not acceptable right here.”
Mr. Putin stated that Mr. Trump informed him of their cellphone name final week that “the US expects that the negotiating course of will happen with the participation of each Russia and Ukraine.”
“Nobody is excluding Ukraine from this course of,” Mr. Putin stated.
Mr. Zelensky delivered his feedback on the identical day that Keith Kellogg, the retired normal appointed by Mr. Trump as his particular envoy to Ukraine and Russia, arrived in Kyiv for a three-day go to to debate attainable methods to finish the battle.
Talking from Kyiv’s railway station upon arrival, Mr. Kellogg stated his mission can be “to take a seat and hear” to Ukraine’s considerations. America, he stated, understands Ukraine’s “want for safety ensures” and the “significance of sovereignty of this nation” — remarks that contrasted sharply with Mr. Trump’s disparaging feedback from the day earlier than.
Mr. Zelensky stated he wished to take Mr. Kellogg to the entrance line so he may see the battle firsthand. Hoping the go to may pierce Mr. Trump’s disinformation bubble, he urged the American envoy to talk with civilians and troopers, and ask them “whether or not they belief their president, what they consider Putin, and what they consider Trump after his statements.”
