President Trump launched an unprecedented attack on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” and deepening the rift between the US and Europe.
His attacks came after Zelensky, reacting to US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia from which Kyiv was excluded, said the US president was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow.
Speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida, Trump called Zelensky a “dictator”, just hours after using the same word in a Truth Social post about the Ukrainian president. He said the only thing Zelensky “was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle”.
“He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls. How can you be high with every city being demolished?” Trump said.
He also referenced his attempt to get rare-earth minerals from Ukraine, accusing Zelensky’s government of “breaking the deal”.
His address echoed his wording of the Truth Social post where Trump said Zelensky “has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.” In the meantime, the US was “successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia,” he said.
Europe criticizes Trump on Zelensky “dictator” slur
The “dictator” slur quickly prompted criticism from European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said “it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelensky his democratic legitimacy”.
Zelensky’s five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and elections have been suspended.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made it clear he backed Zelensky in a phone call to the Ukrainian president. A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir “expressed his support for President Zelensky as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also criticized Trump’s use of the word “dictator” while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the comments “absurd”.
“If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” she told broadcaster ZDF.
War of words between Trump and Ukraine’s president
The war of words began with comments made by Trump on Tuesday at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, when he blamed Ukraine for the war.
Trump was asked by BBC News what his message was to Ukrainians who might feel betrayed, to which he replied: “I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat, well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily.”
“You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump added.
Then on Wednesday, Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv: “We are seeing a lot of disinformation and it’s coming from Russia. With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in this disinformation space.”
He added that he believed “the United States helped Putin to break out of years of isolation”.
Later in the day, the Ukrainian leader said the world faced the choice to be “with Putin or with peace.”
Related: Ukraine Peace Talks: Trump is Bringing Russia Back in From the Cold