The messy dispute between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump escalated on Wednesday when Mr Zelensky said Russia's U.S. leader “has been caught in Russian disinformation” ”, while Mr. Trump laughed at his “autocrats” for having a bad job as a “autocrat with no elections”.
Sharp exchanges are a day after a day of US and Russian officials The opening meeting ended the Ukrainian battle to exclude the Ukrainian government. Hours after the Saudi Arabia meeting, Mr. Trump suggested that Ukraine start the war, a comment that sparked a strong rebuttal from Mr. Zelensky on Wednesday morning.
“I want to have more truth with the Trump team,” Mr. Zelensky said in some of Mr. Trump's most obvious criticism and his views on the Ukrainian war.”
Mr. Zelensky said the U.S. president lives in “false information.” He made remarks to a group of journalists who he summoned to the office of the president of Kiev, the building still housed sandbags to avoid Russian missile explosions.
Trump severed Mr. Zelensky in an article about his truth social account.
“Think about it, it was a modest and successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke with the United States of America to spend $350 billion into a war that could not be won, which has never been There was no beginning, but he didn't have a war, but he didn't have a war, without him, without him, without his war. The United States and “Trump” will never be resolved, Mr. Trump wrote.
Like his claim a day ago, his comments were full of falsehood. For example, the United States has allocated $119 billion in aid to Ukraine instead of $350 billion, according to a research organization at the Kiel Institute in Germany.
Mr. Trump also suggested that Ukraine's future security is not a problem for the United States. “This war is more important to Europe than to us,” he wrote. “We have a large and beautiful ocean as separation.”
His comments made a similar allegation statement Tuesday. Mr Trump said Ukraine “should never have begun” the war and appeared to have accepted Russia’s request for Ukraine to hold elections as a necessary step in reconciliation negotiations. The election was suspended after the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Mr. Zelensky's approval rate was 4%, Mr. Trump said Tuesday. Mr Zelensky said that this was not the case, showing higher support with polls. For example, in December, conducted by the Kiev International Sociology Institute, 52% of Ukrainians said they trust his leadership.
“So if someone wants to replace me right away – that won't happen,” Mr Zelensky said.
Mr. Zelensky said Mr. Trump's misrepresentation was due to misinformation spread by those around him. “This kind of remarks will not help Ukraine, it will only help to free Putin from isolation,” he said.
Until this week, Mr. Zelensky was placing his post in Ukraine while avoiding any advice on public violations with the United States, a war that was close to three years in Ukraine’s most important allies. But after the initial ceasefire negotiations between Russia and the United States on Tuesday, Zelensky Starkly Starkly elaborated on his refusal to accept terms that did not involve Ukrainians.
His comments on Wednesday – delaying Mr. Trump's false assertions while avoiding attributed them to a wider misinformation bubble, consistent with his efforts to maintain balanced behavior and maintain connections with the United States
During Wednesday's press conference, Mr. Zelensky focused and spoke with intensity. He said the negotiations with the Trump administration were not personally confused by him. “This is not my first conversation or fight,” he said. “I accept it calmly.”
He said Russia is obviously satisfied with the development of diplomatic development. “I think Putin and the Russians are happy because they are talking about the issue,” Zelensky said.
“There were signals to talk to them yesterday,” he said of Trump officials' tone to the Russians that the Russian government launched the largest war in Europe since World War II, which had killed Or injured about a million people. On both sides. “That’s new.”
Mr Zelensky said Ukrainians are unlikely to believe the commitments Russian negotiators have provided in the negotiations. “There is no one in Ukrainian trust in Putin,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky also proposed efforts to coordinate allied security assurances to prevent Russia from violating any ceasefire. This is the focus of Ukrainian diplomacy, and it is introduced into any peace negotiations.
For Russia, the continuation of the war also brought costs, including estimates by military analysts, causing shocking losses to 1,000 soldiers or more killed or injured per day, and punishing economic sanctions. Ukraine hopes to put such pressure on Russia to accept peacekeeping forces or other assurances to prevent war, the bloodiest war in Europe passed down from generation to impossible to start over.
Mr Zelensky repeated that one option would be NATO membership, which was rejected by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who said the United States did not support the United States. The Ukrainian leader also mentioned maintaining the peacekeeping characteristics of the country's conventional army with about one million soldiers and European countries, or a combination of some measure.
Putin praised Trump administration officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for raising a “very friendly” atmosphere. He suggested that unlike the past U.S. administration, the Trump team did not criticize Russia's actions.
“On the United States, there are completely different people who are willing to accept negotiation procedures without any bias and condemn what they have done in the past,” Mr. Putin said during his visit to St. Petersburg.
Mr Putin said he was looking forward to a meeting with Trump but refused to date, warning that there was still a lot of preparation to be done, “including on the track in Ukraine.”
“I'd love to meet Donald,” he said. “We haven't seen each other in a while. But our situation isn't enough to see tea or coffee and sit down and talk about the future.”
Mr. Putin refuted concerns that European allies were excluded from the U.S.-Russia talks, believing that the two countries have bilateral issues to discuss, such as the expiration of a new nuclear weapons control treaty next year.
“Why are they hysterical?” Mr. Putin said, obviously referring to Europeans. “It’s not suitable here.”
Mr Putin said Trump told him on their phone last week: “The United States expects negotiation procedures to take place with Russia and Ukraine's participation.”
“No one excludes Ukraine from this process,” Putin said.
Mr. Zelensky commented on the day that Keith Kellogg, a retired general appointed by Mr. Trump as the special envoy of Ukraine and Russia, arrived in Kiev for a three-day visit to discuss possible ways to end the war.
Kellogg said his mission would “sit down and listen” to Ukraine's concerns, when he arrived at the Kiev railway station. He said the United States understands Ukraine’s “need for security assurance” and “the importance of sovereignty in this country” – a stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s derogatory comment the day before.
Mr. Zelensky said he wanted to take Mr. Kellogg to the frontline so that he could witness the war with his own eyes. Hopefully this visit will pierce Mr. Trump’s misinformation bubble, who urged the U.S. envoy to talk to civilians and soldiers and ask them “whether they trust the president, their views on Putin and their opinions on Trump after his remarks view.”
