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Donald Trump has called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and warned that Ukraine’s president “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”, deepening a rift between Washington and Kyiv.
The US president hit out at his Ukrainian counterpart on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, hours after Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and challenged a $500bn bill for aid to the war-torn country.
The bitter exchange came after Trump upended decades of US policy by convening bilateral talks with Moscow on the Ukraine war — without inviting Kyiv — and blamed Zelenskyy for Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump also made his most overt threat yet to end the war on terms favourable to Moscow, writing: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy blasted Trump for pushing “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia” in response to the US president’s false claim that Kyiv had started the conflict.
“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly . . . is living in this disinformation bubble,” Zelenskyy said.
Speaking aboard Air Force One later on Wednesday, Trump said Russia had “taken a lot of territory, so they have the cards” in any peace deal with Ukraine.
Washington and Moscow agreed in their bilateral talks on Tuesday to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation” on ending the war, the largest on European soil since the second world war.
“We’re doing very well with Russia,” said Trump. “We’re going to do something with Russia that [Zelenskyy] was unable to do. We could make a deal with Russia.”
Zelenskyy also disputed Trump’s previous claims that Ukraine owed the US $500bn worth of rare minerals and other resources for past military assistance, which the US president had dispatched Treasury secretary Scott Bessent to secure.
“The US has contributed approximately $60bn so far, with an additional $31.5bn in financial assistance,” the Ukrainian president said. “That’s $67bn in weaponry and $31.5bn in direct budgetary support.”
Kyiv has spent $320bn on its war efforts against Russia, with $200bn coming from international military assistance, Zelenskyy said. US state department data broadly supports Zelenskyy’s figure for American military support for Ukraine.
Later on Air Force One, Trump suggested he would “resurrect” the critical minerals deal, which Kyiv has rejected.
Zelenskyy pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that elections should be held in Ukraine, after the US president claimed his Ukrainian counterpart, who he described as “a modestly successful comedian”, had had an approval rating of just 4 per cent.
Pointing to polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which in February found 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their president, Zelenskyy said: “So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought regime change in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy is due to hold talks with Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, on Thursday.
“It is very important for us that the meeting, and the work with America in general, is constructive,” the Ukrainian president said on Wednesday evening.
Trump’s comments about Zelenskyy prompted censure from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said it was “simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy”.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed support for Zelenskyy after a phone call between the two men, saying the Ukrainian president was a “democratically elected leader” and that it was “perfectly reasonable” to suspend elections during wartime.
Putin earlier on Wednesday said that he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”, and would meet Trump “with pleasure”.
He also said he would not “speculate” on US-European relations, but claimed EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and said “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.
The Russian president also said he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”, and would meet Trump “with pleasure”.
“The US negotiators were totally different — they were open to a negotiating process without any biases or judgments about what was done in the past,” Putin added, in his first public comments since a phone call with Trump last week that led to Riyadh meeting. “They intend to work together.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher and George Parker in London
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