Tensions mount between Trump and Zelenskyy, as Ukraine watches U.S. engagement with Russia from afar
Zelenskyy suggests U.S. president is living in a Russian-made 'disinformation space'
Ukraine has spent nearly three years fighting against an unyielding, full-scale Russian invasion but until recently did not face serious sparring with its allies in Washington.
Yet tensions are mounting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump, with the two leaders exchanging public criticisms.
Trump raised eyebrows in Europe and elsewhere on Wednesday when he slammed his Ukrainian counterpart on social media as a "dictator without elections" — an apparent reference to the war there having delayed elections. Trump also said Zelenskyy must move to end the war quickly or risk not having "a country left."
In response, Zelenskyy, who has led Ukraine's response to Russian's invasion, suggested that Trump was living in a Russian-made "disinformation space," and called on the U.S. president's team "to be more truthful."
Several European leaders came to Zelenskyy's defence on Wednesday, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said it was "false and dangerous" for Trump to call the Ukrainian leader a dictator, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Wednesday evening, and expressed support for him "as Ukraine's democratically elected leader," according to a statement from his office. Starmer also said it's "perfectly reasonable" to suspend elections during wartime, as the U.K. did during the Second World War.
A meeting on Ukraine took place in Paris on Wednesday, involving French President Emmanuel Macron, some European allies and also Canada. Afterward, Macron said in a statement on X that France and its partners "seek a long-lasting and solid peace in Ukraine." The statement did not mention the war of words between Trump and Zelenskyy.
Trump's nearly month-old administration has had a scattershot approach to the Ukraine conflict, with top officials at times threatening to hit Russia with tariffs and sanctions, while also stating that Kyiv is unlikely to recover land that Russia has occupied. The U.S. president has also pressed Ukraine to share access to its rare-earth minerals in exchange for continued support.
Furthermore, the U.S. began talks with Russia about ending the war on Tuesday, without Ukraine.
A day later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had been "very positive," and that Russian officials involved in them saw their U.S. counterparts as "open to the negotiation process without any bias, without any condemnation of what was done in the past."
Putin also signalled his interest in meeting with Trump, though he said that would take time to set up.
State-controlled media in Russia appeared to welcome Trump's treatment of Zelenskyy.
The daily Komsomolskaya Pravda said the U.S. leader had "steamrolled Zelenskyy for his complaints about the talks with Russia." The Rossiya channel said Trump "isn't even trying to hide his irritation" with the Ukrainian leader.
Trump places blame with Ukraine
Trump has also suggested Ukraine is to blame for being invaded — leaving many leaders, lawmakers and observers in Ukraine and elsewhere aghast.
"We don't understand the logic very well," French government spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters on Wednesday, describing Trump's comments as "often incomprehensible."
Lesia Vasylenko, an opposition lawmaker in Ukraine, told Britain's Channel 4 News that there had previously been some hope that Trump's outreach to Putin could have been an initial step in an eventual peace process.
But it's hard to see anything positive coming from Trump "calling the president of Ukraine names" and pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to its aggressor, she said.
Alexandra Chyczij, the national president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said Trump's blaming of Ukraine for the invasion is "as revolting as it is false" and suggested it could embolden Moscow.
"Trump's insults … will only encourage Russia to further aggression against Ukraine and Ukraine's neighbours," she said in a statement.
In the U.S., Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said on social media that Putin deserves the blame "above all others" for the war.
Yet Graham, a staunch Trump ally, also said he believed the U.S. president "is Ukraine's best hope to end this war honorably and justly."
Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, is in Kyiv for talks with Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials.
Zelenskyy said it is "crucial" that both their meeting on Thursday and Washington's "overall co-operation … be constructive."
He said in his nightly video address that he's counting on "unity" from his fellow Ukrainians and Europe and on — what sounded like a markedly lower bar — "the pragmatism of America."
Trump has repeatedly pointed to the war's human toll as a reason it should end. Kellogg spoke to that point on Wednesday.
"It's an egregious war in the sense of the length of time and casualties there and [Trump] understands the human suffering," he said. "He understands the damage that we can see and we want to see an end to it."
The war has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians and, according to Zelenskyy, more than 45,000 of its soldiers. Both totals may be undercounts. On the Russian side, NATO chief Mark Rutte said in late October that Moscow had by then seen more than 600,000 soldiers wounded or killed.
Overnight, the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa was attacked by a barrage of Russian drones. Zelenskyy said the attack left tens of thousands of people without power amid sub-zero temperatures. Another wave of drone attacks on Odesa was reported Wednesday evening, for the second consecutive evening.
Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian guided bomb had left at least one person dead in the city of Kupiansk, in the border region of Kharkiv.
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With files from The Associated Press and Reuters