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 online of disinformation” from Russia and Mr. Trump mocked his counterpart as a “dictator with out elections” who had finished a horrible job as president.
The pointed alternate got here in the future after officers from america and Russia opened talks to finish the combating in Ukraine that excluded the Ukrainian authorities. Hours after that assembly in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump urged that Ukraine had began the warfare, a remark that introduced a robust rebuttal from Mr. Zelensky on Wednesday morning.
“I want to have extra fact with the Trump workforce,” Mr. Zelensky stated in a few of the most overt criticism but of Mr. Trump and his view of the warfare in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky stated that the U.S. president was residing in a “circle of disinformation.” He made the remarks to a bunch of reporters he had summoned to his presidential workplace in Kyiv, a constructing nonetheless fortified with sandbags to keep away from blasts from Russian missiles.
In a publish on his Fact Social account, Mr. Trump responded with a scathing assault on Mr. Zelensky.
“Consider it, a modestly profitable comic, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked america of America into spending $350 Billion {Dollars}, to enter a Warfare that couldn’t be received, that by no means needed to begin, however a Warfare that he, with out the U.S. and “TRUMP,” won’t ever be capable to settle,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Like his assertions a day earlier, his feedback have been full of falsehoods. America, as an illustration, has allotted $119 billion for help to Ukraine, based on a analysis group in Germany, the Kiel Institute, not $350 billion.
Mr. Trump additionally urged that future safety of Ukraine wouldn’t be an American downside. “This Warfare is much extra vital to Europe than it’s to us,” he wrote. “Now we have an enormous, stunning Ocean as separation.”
His feedback adopted up equally accusatory statements he made on Tuesday. Mr. Trump stated Ukraine “ought to have by no means began” the warfare, and appeared to embrace what has been a Russian demand that Ukraine maintain elections as a mandatory step within the settlement talks. Elections have been suspended below martial legislation 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 greater assist. In one carried out 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 desires to interchange me proper now — that’s not going to occur,” Mr. Zelensky stated, referring to his approval scores.
Mr. Trump’s false statements, Mr. Zelensky stated, stemmed from misinformation unfold by individuals 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 positive line of staking out Ukrainian positions whereas avoiding any suggestion of an open breach with america, Ukraine’s most vital ally in a warfare that’s nearing the three-year mark. However after the preliminary cease-fire talks between Russia and america 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 according to his efforts to take care of a balancing act and keep 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 combat,” he stated. “I take it calmly.”
Russia, he stated, is clearly happy with the flip of diplomatic developments. “I feel Putin and the Russians are very pleased, as a result of questions are mentioned with them,” Mr. Zelensky stated.
“Yesterday, there have been indicators of talking with them as victims,” he stated of the Trump officers’ tone towards the Russians, whose authorities set off the most important warfare in Europe since World Warfare II, one which has killed or wounded about one million individuals on either side. “That’s one thing new.”
Ukrainians, Mr. Zelensky stated, usually are not prone to belief guarantees Russian negotiators supply 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 warfare additionally carries prices, together with by the estimate of navy analysts a staggering toll of 1,000 troopers or extra killed or wounded every day, in addition to punishing financial sanctions. Ukraine desires to commerce this stress on Russia for acceptance of a peacekeeping power or different assure of safety to forestall the warfare, already the bloodiest in Europe in generations, from restarting.
Mr. Zelensky repeated that one possibility can be membership in NATO, a chance that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has rejected and that america has stated it doesn’t assist. The Ukrainian chief additionally talked about sustaining the nation’s standing military of about a million troopers and a peacekeeping contingent from European nations, 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” ambiance. Not like previous American administrations, he urged, the Trump workforce didn’t criticize Russia’s actions.
“On the American aspect, there have been utterly totally different individuals who have been open to the negotiation course of with none bias, with none condemnation of what was finished prior to now,” Mr. Putin stated, chatting with 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 a whole lot of preparatory work to be finished, “together with on the Ukrainian monitor.”
“I’ll be pleased 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 concerning 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 nations 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 will not be applicable right here.”
Mr. Putin stated that Mr. Trump advised him of their telephone name final week that “america 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 common 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 warfare.
Talking from Kyiv’s railway station upon arrival, Mr. Kellogg stated his mission can be “to sit down and hear” to Ukraine’s issues. 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 needed to take Mr. Kellogg to the entrance line so he may see the warfare firsthand. Hoping the go to would possibly 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.”
