London – The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responded to the call of President Donald Trump so that the country celebrates new presidential elections after the historic conversations of Russia-United States on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia.
Russia’s conversations in the United States in Riyadh, to which Ukraine was not invited, represented “an important step forward” to end the invasion of their three -year neighbor of Russia, according to a reading of the State Department.
Hours after the conclusion of the conversations, Trump told Mar-A-Lago journalists that Zelenskyy’s public approval index was “up to 4%”, not providing a source for the figure. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the 2024 presidential elections of the country due to martial law.
During a press conference on Wednesday at kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump’s statement, pointing to the respected recent surveys that consistently surveyed above 50% with voters and describing Trump’s statement as Russian “misinformation.”
The Ukrainian forces are looking for drones in the sky on kyiv, Ukraine, during a strike of Russian unmanned aircraft on February 18, 2025.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters
“If someone wants to replace me right now, then it will not work now,” said Zelenskyy. “If we are talking about 4%, then we have seen this misinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia. And we have evidence.”
The president said he would conduct opinion surveys for trusted qualifications for world leaders, including Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelensky said he took Trump’s comments “calmly” and that Ukraine would help get the president “isolation.”
Hours after the discussions of the United States in Russia concluded with the commitment to continue the conversations, Russia launched a great missile and flood of unmanned planes to Ukraine. The Ukraine Air Force reported 167 drones and two Balistic missiles of Iskander launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more in flight.
The mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, reported a “massive enemy attack in a densely populated area of the city” that causes electricity, heating and water interruptions.
Zelenskyy said in a publication to the social networks that the strike went to “civil energy facilities”, according to the long Russian doctrine. “For almost three years, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attacking the drones against them,” he said.
“Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it was clear that the Russian representatives were lying once again, claiming that they do not point to the energy sector of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy continued.
“However, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones hitting electric transformers,” he wrote. “And this is during the winter, it was less 6 degrees Celsius at night.”
“We must never forget that Russia is governed by pathological liars: you cannot trust them and should be pressured,” said the president.
kyiv’s exclusion from Saudi conversations has unstable Ukraine and its European allies. Trump did not apologize when he spoke with journalists on Tuesday at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, just when Odeesa was attacked.
“They have had a seat for three years and a long time before,” Trump said about Ukraine, suggesting that kyiv could have made a deal with Moscow to avoid the great loss of lives and land.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 15, 2025 in Munich, Germany.
Be Gallup/Getty Images
Trump said he believes he has “the power to end this war”, while falsely that Ukraine began the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its large -scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of Russian cross -border aggression in Crimea and the eastern region of Donbas de Ukrania.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump said about US efforts to end war. “But today I heard, oh, ‘Well, we weren’t guests.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years.
Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskyy criticized the recent demand of the Trump administration of a treaty that would deliver 50% of the natural resources of Ukraine to the United States, in exchange for any security guarantee. Trump himself has repeatedly said that he wants $ 500 billion in the rare minerals of Ukraine to pay the United States for their support during Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy said such demand “was not serious” and corrected Trump’s statement that the United States has provided more money than Europe.
“There was no word about security guarantees,” he said. “There is nothing precise there. I can’t sell the state.”
Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine cannot join NATO, he needs a strong army backed by Western weapons and air defense. He said that Ukraine was looking for a contingent of troops from European countries to help protect Ukraine after a high fire, but warned that Ukraine troops themselves should be backed by air defense, which only the United States can provide.
“Only Americans, President Donald Trump, have this protection, this air defense is exclusively of them, and that is the important thing,” said Zelenskyy. “We have a map that shows us this, but we are ready for dialogue, for discussion, about how much, how much is needed. We have calculated everything; we have discovered everything. So this is essentially the main point of what we are requesting “
Zelenskyy suggested on Tuesday that Russia’s conversations in the United States simply revived the ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of his invasion.
“I have the impression that some negotiations are now happening and have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States,” Zelenskyy said during a visit to Türkiye.
“Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he added. “It is interesting, if Ukraine did not yield to the ultimatums at the most difficult time, where does the feeling that Ukraine will agree with this now?”
In this image of the brochure published by the official Saudi press agency, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, shakes hand before the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, during his meeting at the Palacio Diriyah, in Riad, Arabia Saudi, on February 18, 2025.
-/SPA/AFP through Getty Images
“I never intended to give in to the Ultimatums of Russia and I do not intend of now,” Zelenskyy added.
In Riad, the United States and Russia agreed to appoint special representatives not identified to continue peace talks, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Going to Russian Parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who directed Moscow team in Riad, told the legislators that “the atmosphere is positive, the intentions are correct, we will see how the situation develops even more , what decisions will be made “
He added: “The main thing is to know, listen and listen, make decisions that will be realistic.”
Putin Yuri Ushakov assistant told the state controlled by the state a television channel that Trump Ukraine-Russia’s envoy Keith Kellogg would negotiate an agreement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived at Kyiv on Wednesday morning, where he is expected to have conversations with Ukrainian leaders.
Kellogg told reporters that his “mission is to sit and listen” and then inform Trump. He seemed questions about whether Trump is on Putin’s side, saying that Trump wants to end war because “he understands human suffering” that he is causing.
Kellogg added that he agrees with Trump that the war would never have begun if he had been president at that time.
Fidel Pavlenko of ABC News, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
