US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the 18th of February, slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a bad negotiator and “grossly incompetent” as tensions continue over the US administration’s direct talks with Russia to end the war that Russia started almost three years ago, according to Politico and Reuters.
Talks between Russia and the US began in Saudi Arabia early on Tuesday morning amid criticism that Ukraine and its European allies had not been invited, even though US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that all parties would be invited to the “real” talks.
Trump, while claiming that the initial round of talks had gone “very well”, was frustrated by Zelenskyy’s frustration at being excluded and by the Ukrainian President’s decision not to fly to Riyadh this week for additional talks with the US delegation.
“Today I heard: “Oh, well, we weren’t invited”,” Trump said when asked about the criticism of Ukraine, seemingly responding directly to Zelenskyy.
“Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it — three years. You should never been there. You should never have started it. You should have made a deal.”
His comment, ignoring the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine three years ago without provocation, was Trump’s harshest condemnation yet of the Ukrainian side.
Sean Savett, who was White House Press Secretary for the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden, wrote on social media that Russia started the war.
“Sounds like Trump has bought Putin’s propaganda,” he said. “A reminder that no one needs: Putin started the war by invading Ukraine unprovoked and his forces have committed war crimes against the Ukrainian people. Russia is responsible for the continuation of this war.”
Trump’s comments come as Zelenskyy and European leaders seek to respond to growing signs that Kyiv’s most important ally of the past three years appears more interested in normalising relations with Russia than in consolidating Ukraine’s existence, and to show that Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to be strongly deterred.
Trump also confirmed that he is interested in holding elections in Ukraine as part of any diplomatic solution to the war.
“The situation is that Ukraine has not held elections, the country is under martial law, the leader of Ukraine – I hate to say it, but his popularity is down to 4%, and the country is devastated,” Trump said.
Although public support for Zelenskyy is down compared to the early days of the war, he still has a slight majority of Ukrainians – 52%, according to a poll last month.
Trump also responded to a question that forcing Zelenskyy to run again is a Russian priority.
“That’s not coming from Russia,” Trump said. “It’s something that comes from me and many other countries.”
The President also said that Ukrainians, who are fighting for the survival of their country, are “tired” of the death and destruction and want the war to end. “People want something to happen.”
This statement was at odds with the reality in Ukraine, where elected officials and a large part of the population are shocked by the actions of the Trump administration, which seems indifferent to the fate of the country. These include not only negotiations with Moscow, but also the US proposal to demand half of Ukraine’s rare earths rights as payment for the aid already received, without any guarantee of future security.
At the end of the press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, he was asked whether he still hoped to meet Putin before the end of the month, to which Trump replied: “Probably.”
Earlier, briefing reporters on the US-Russia talks in Riyadh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the two sides had not set a date for Trump and Putin to meet to discuss Ukraine.