U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calling him “a dictator without elections” and urging him to act quickly to secure peace, warning that Ukraine risks losing its sovereignty, according to Reuters.
Trump’s remarks came after Zelenskiy pushed back against the former president’s earlier suggestion that Ukraine bore responsibility for Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Zelenskiy accused Trump of being influenced by Russian disinformation.
“A dictator without elections, Zelenskiy better move fast, or he is not going to have a country left,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that Ukraine would not bow to pressure. “We will defend our right to exist,” Sybiha posted on X.
Zelenskiy’s five-year presidential term was initially set to end in 2024. However, martial law, imposed in February 2022 following Russia’s invasion, has made holding presidential and parliamentary elections impossible.
Russia currently occupies approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory and continues its gradual offensive in the eastern regions. Moscow claims its “special military operation” was launched in response to an existential threat posed by Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO. However, Kyiv and its Western allies view the invasion as a blatant act of imperialist aggression.
Zelenskiy, who met with Trump’s former Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Wednesday, expressed his hope that Trump’s team would gain a clearer understanding of the realities in Ukraine. This followed Trump’s statement that Ukraine “should never have started” the conflict with Russia.
The Ukrainian president dismissed Trump’s claim that his approval rating in Ukraine was as low as 4%, labeling it as another piece of Russian disinformation. Zelenskiy insisted that any attempt to undermine his leadership would fail.
“We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. Unfortunately, President Trump appears to be living in this disinformation space,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with Ukrainian television.
A February poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskiy.
Since the beginning of his term, Trump has significantly shifted U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia. In one of his early moves, he ended efforts to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine by initiating a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and facilitating talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials.
