US President Donald Trump called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” on Feb 19, widening a personal rift with major implications for efforts to end the conflict triggered by Russia’s invasion three years ago.
The United States had provided funding and arms to Ukraine, but in an abrupt policy shift since coming to power, Mr Trump has opened talks with Moscow.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform of the Ukrainian leader, whose five-year term expired in 2024.
Martial law introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 bans any wartime elections.
The Constitution says the president serves until a newly elected one takes office.
On Feb 18, Mr Trump held a press conference in which he criticised Mr Zelensky, repeated several Kremlin narratives about the conflict and called for an end to the war.
Mr Zelensky in turn accused Mr Trump of succumbing to Russian “disinformation” – including Mr Trump blaming of Kyiv for having “started” the war and echoing Kremlin questions over Mr Zelensky’s legitimacy.
“He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing (Joe) Biden ‘like a fiddle’,” said Mr Trump in hisTruth Social post of Mr Zelensky.
“In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” the president added.
Later on Feb 19, Mr Trump doubled down on his criticism of Mr Zelensky, telling a conference in Florida that the Ukrainian leader done a terrible job and could have come to talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia if he had wanted to.
Mr Trump said he hoped for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine soon.
Mr Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, but has remained leader under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion.
His popularity has eroded, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 per cent since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
Mr Trump’s invective drew shock from Europe where German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Mr Zelensky a dictator.
‘Doublethink’
Mr Trump has long held his party in lockstep, but moderate Republicans swiftly pushed back against his attack on Mr Zelensky on Feb 19.
“Putin started this war. Putin committed war crimes. Putin is the dictator who murdered his opponents. The EU nations have contributed more to Ukraine. Zelensky polls over 50%. Ukraine wants to be part of the West, Putin hates the West,” congressman Don Bacon, from Nebraska, wrote on X.
“I don’t accept George Orwell’s doublethink,” he added, referring to the author of the dystopian novel, 1984.