Zelensky and Trump commerce insults as US president launches blistering assault on ‘moderately successful comedian’

Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump traded insults on Wednesday after the US president falsely accused Ukraine of starting Russia’s war.

The Republican billionaire launched a blistering attack on his Truth Social platform, accusing the Ukrainian leader of being a ‘dictator’ and issuing a warning that he needed to ‘move fast or lose the country’.

Branding the war-time leader a “modestly successful comedian”, Trump made the outrageous claim that Zelensky had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion, to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a war that he, without the US and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle.”

“We are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do,” the president continued. “Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..”

It was Trump’s second barrage against Zelensky in less than 24 hours, having falsely claimed Ukraine began the war, at a press conference on Tuesday evening. The US president also falsely claimed Zelensky’s approval rating was 4 per cent and called for Ukraine to hold elections.

Zelensky replied in his own news conference on Wednesday, saying: “We have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia.”

He accused Trump of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space”, adding that he “would like Trump’s team to be more truthful”.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, later added that “nobody can force Ukraine to give up”, a reference to concerns that a US deal with Russia to end the war could be done over Kyiv’s head.

“Ukraine withstood the most horrific military attack in Europe’s modern history and three years of a total war,” he wrote.

“The Ukrainian people and their President Zelensky refused to give in to Putin’s pressure. Nobody can force Ukraine to give up. We will defend our right to exist.”

Trump’s false claims about the origins of the war – started when Vladimir Putin invaded nearly three years ago – were met with outrage on the world stage.

Even former prime minister, and Trump ally, Boris Johnson hit out at the remarks. Johnson said the US president’s statements on Ukraine – which were the latest in a series of controversial interventions by the Trump administration – “are not intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action”. Former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace accused the White House of peddling “fake news” with the comments.

France, which held an emergency summit on Ukraine on Monday in response to Trump’s previous interventions, also criticised the statements from the US.

“We don’t understand the logic very well,” government spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters, branding Trump’s remarks as “diverse, varied and often incomprehensible”.

French President Emmanuel Macron was set to have an informal meeting on Ukraine with some European leaders and NATO ally Canada on Wednesday afternoon.

Before the meeting, Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said that while there was no complete agreement in the 27-nation EU on how to move forward, countries had managed to accomplish a lot.”We need to keep a cool head and continue to support Ukraine,” he added.

Russia’s army crossed the border on 24 February, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by saying it was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining Nato. Ukraine and its allies denounced it as an unprovoked act of aggression.

The comments from Trump and Zelensky were a remarkable back-and-forth between leaders of two countries that have been staunch allies in recent years under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, as the US provided crucial military equipment to Kyiv to fend off the invasion and used its political weight to defend Ukraine and isolate Russia on the world stage.

Russian state TV and other state-controlled media reacted with glee to what they portrayed as Trump’s cold shoulder to Zelensky.

“Mr Trump isn’t even trying to hide his irritation with Zelensky,” the Rossiya channel said at the top of its newscast.

“Mr Trump steamrolled Mr Zelensky for his complaints about the talks with Russia,” the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda said.

Putin, meanwhile, said that he is ready to get back to negotiations on Ukraine, Russian state media reported.

He also praised the US-Russia talks, saying their purpose was to increase trust between the two countries and that the two sides acted without “bias or judgment.”

Source: independent.co.uk