US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, the 19th of February, denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator” and warned that he must act quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, Russian officials, meanwhile, publicly cheered Trump’s attacks on Zelenskyy, relishing America’s turnaround in its previously close relations with Kyiv as Ukraine tries to fend off Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s now three-year-old invasion, reports Politico.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Trump was living in a Russian disinformation bubble after Trump falsely claimed Ukraine had gone to war with Russia and falsely claimed that Zelenskyy had 4% voter support.
“A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better act fast or he will no longer have a country,” Trump warned, accusing the Ukrainian leader of “persuading” the US to spend billions of dollars on his country’s defence.
The Kremlin almost seemed not to believe its luck, as Trump essentially repeated many of Moscow’s views on Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, Vice-President of the Russian Security Council and former President of the country, supported Trump’s anti-Ukraine tirade.
“If you had told me three months ago that these were the words of the US President, I would have laughed out loud. @realDonaldTrump is 200% right. Bankrupt clown…,” Medvedev wrote on X.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not directly address Trump’s first public condemnation of Zelenskyy but welcomed the US president’s recent remarks on the war, saying Trump “understands” the Kremlin’s position.
“He is the first and, I think, so far the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukraine situation was the brazen line of the previous [former US President Joe Biden] administration to drag Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov said, repeating the Kremlin’s long-standing narrative about why it invaded Ukraine. “No Western leader had ever said that, but he had said it several times. That is already a signal that he understands our position.”
Lavrov also said Moscow and Washington must “clean up” the policies left by Biden, which the foreign minister said had undermined the “long-term partnership” between Russia and the US. The growing rhetorical engagement between the Kremlin and the White House suggests that both sides are already on the way to achieving this goal.
The apparent jubilation of Russian leaders over Trump’s new approach to the war also underlines America’s growing rapprochement with the Kremlin.
Last week, European officials were alarmed when Trump announced that the US and Russia would negotiate on the conflict, effectively excluding both Ukraine and the EU from the talks and destroying the post-1945 security architecture that has underpinned Europe.
For his part, Putin continued to drive a wedge between Trump and the EU when he spoke to the media on Wednesday.
“All European leaders, without exception, essentially directly interfered in the US electoral process,” the Russian President said. “I am surprised by the reticence of the newly elected US President Trump towards his allies, who behaved, frankly, in a bully-like manner. He is still treating them quite decently.”