London – The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that President Donald Trump is in a “misinformation space” as public recriminations between the two leaders deepened Wednesday in the midst of nascent conversations to end the large -scale invasion of Three years of neighbor of Russia.
The series of attacks, Zelenskyy suggested, were partly informed by “misinformation”, which the Ukrainian president said “comes from Russia, and we have evidence.”
Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” stating, without providing evidence, that the approval index of his Ukrainian counterpart was as low as 4%. Trump also wrote in Truth Social that Zelenskyy “moves better fast or won’t have a country.”
Trump’s apparent impulse for new elections in Ukraine is aligned with long Kremlin conversation points, frame Zelenskyy as an inadequate “illegitimate” leader for peace conversations.
President Donald Trump in Washington, on February 13, 2025, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Munich, on February 15, 2025 and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, February 19, 2025.
Getty images/ap
Ukraine’s latest presidential elections were scheduled to be held in 2024, but was postponed due to the Russian war in the country. The Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that the elections cannot be held under martial law, which was introduced within a few hours of the invasion of Moscow of February 2022.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has tried to arm the delay to undermine Kyiv. “You can negotiate with anyone, but due to their illegitimacy, you have no right to sign anything,” Putin said about Zelenskyy in January.
The country’s parliament and its speaker “are still the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine,” Putin said in May 2024, the month that would mark the end of Zelenskyy’s mandate.
Trump’s side against Zelenskyy included a call to new elections, despite the current war. “That is not a thing of Russia, that is something that comes from me and it also comes from many other countries,” Trump said.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia, prime minister and a superior ally of Putin, was cheerful in his response to Trump’s most recent comments.
“If you had told me only three months ago that these were the words of the president of the United States, I would have laughed out loud,” said Medvedev, who is now the vice president of the Russian Security Council, wrote in X. Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, He added: “It’s 200 percent correct,” describing Zelenskyy as a “bankruptcy clown.”
The Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Andrei Kelin, also celebrated the American pivot. “For the first time, we have noticed that they are not simply saying that this is Russian propaganda and misinformation,” he told the BBC.
“They have heard and listen to what we are saying,” Kelin said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, listens to the governor of the territory of Kamchatka, Vladimir Solodov, during his meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on February 17, 2025.
Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo through AP
Trump suggested this week that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO was an important cause of Russia’s invasion in 2022. The statement won more praise in Russia.
“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has said public and loudly that one of the fundamental causes of the Ukrainian situation was the insolent line of the previous administration to attract Ukraine to the NATO, “Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the legislators.
Like Moscow, Trump and his domestic allies seem to be presenting Zelenskyy as a key impediment to peace.
Vice President JD Vance said that Trump’s “warehouse” of the Ukrainian leader was an “atrocious” way to interact with the administration.
“Obviously we love the Ukrainian people,” he told Daily Mail. “We admire the courage of the soldiers, but obviously we think that this war should approach quickly.”
“That is the policy of the president of the United States,” said Vance. “It is not based on Russian misinformation. It is based on the fact that Donald Trump, I think, knows a lot about geopolitics and has a very strong vision, and has had a strong vision for a long time.”
Meanwhile, Trump confidant Steve Bannon told the newspaper La Repubblica de Italia that he believed that Zelenskyy is “finished.”
“Of course, if you decide to accept the terms of the agreement with Russia, it will be welcome, but you no longer have the power to dictate them,” said Bannon.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, offers a press conference in kyiv on February 19, 2025 in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Tetiana Dzhafaova/Pool/AFP through Getty Images
Meanwhile, Russian officials also framed Kyiv as the key impediment to peace.
“The Ukrainian side is practically ready to use any tool that aims to stop or prevent dialogue and avoid the search for a scenario for a political and diplomatic settlement,” said Rodion Miroshnik, an ambassador and the foreign ministry of Russia, said the State television on Thursday, as cited by the TASS news agency managed by Russia.
Meanwhile, several of kyiv’s European partners expressed a deep concern for the latest developments.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, “emphasized the need for everyone to work together”, in a statement, expressing “his support for President Zelenskyy as the democratically chosen leader of Ukraine.” Starmer said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend the elections during war time as the United Kingdom did during World War II.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “simply incorrect and dangerous to deny the democratic legitimacy of President Zelenskyy.”
Molly Nagle and Patrick Reevell of ABC News contributed to this report.
