The US and Ukrainian presidents took swipes at each other with Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Donald Trump lived in a Russian “disinformation space,” and Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator.
US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “better move fast” and called him a “dictator without elections” after the Ukrainian leader accused Trump of being stuck in a Russian “disinformation bubble.”
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
The post’s wording was similar to past statements made by the Kremlin about Ukraine and Zelenskyy.
Trump also claimed the US was “successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia.”
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 for a five-year term but has stayed in power under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion. Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukraine should not be excluded from any discussions about its future.
“It’s a fundamental principle for Canada and for the vast majority of our allies … Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Trudeau said ahead of a meeting on the conflict to be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.
The Canadian leader’s comments came a day after US and Russian officials held high-level talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the war. Ukrainian representatives were not invited to the meeting.
Trudeau also challenged Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine was to blame for the war.
“We had rules around borders, around not invading your neighbors that Russia chose deliberately to violate a number of years ago,” he said. “And that puts at risk, not just Ukrainians’ ability to determine their own future, it puts at risk all of our democracies, all of the rules that keep us safe and prosperous.”
