WASHINGTON/KYIV -- US President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "a dictator without elections" on Wednesday and said he had better move fast to secure peace or he would have no country left.
Trump spoke hours after Zelenskyy hit back at his suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped 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 social media, using a different spelling for the Ukrainian president's name.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said no one could force his country to give in. "We will defend our right to exist," Sybiha said on X.
Zelenskyy's five-year term was supposed to end in 2024 but presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022 in response to Russia's invasion.
Russia has seized some 20 percent of Ukraine and is slowly but steadily gaining more territory in the east. Moscow said its "special military operation" responded to an existential threat posed by Kyiv's pursuit of NATO membership. Ukraine and the West call Russia's action an imperialist land grab.
Zelenskyy, who met Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Wednesday, said he would like Trump's team to have "more truth" about Ukraine, a day after Trump said Ukraine "should never have started" the conflict with Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump's assertion that his approval rating was just 4 percent was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail.
"We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space," Zelenskyy told Ukrainian TV.
The latest poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, from early February, says 57 percent of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy.
Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia, ending Washington's bid to isolate Russia over the invasion with a Trump-Putin phone call and talks between senior US and Russian officials.
Following Trump's latest remarks, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Zelenskyy "sits in office after duly-held elections." When asked who started the war, Dujarric responded that Russia had invaded Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was "false and dangerous" for Trump to call Zelenskyy a dictator, German newspaper Spiegel reported.
European officials have been left shocked and flat-footed by the Trump administration’s moves on Ukraine in recent days.
At a second meeting of European leaders in Paris, hastily arranged by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier in the day, there were more calls for immediate action to support Ukraine and bolster Europe's defense capabilities, but few concrete decisions.
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Washington next week, amid other meetings aimed at bringing an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, according to White House national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy, expressed support for him as Ukraine's democratically elected leader and said it was "perfectly reasonable" to suspend elections during wartime, Starmer's office said on Wednesday.
Trump-Putin meeting
Trump said he may meet Putin this month. In Moscow, Putin said that Ukraine would not be barred from peace negotiations but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.
Putin, speaking a day after Russia and the US met in Riyadh to hold their first talks on how to end the three-year-old conflict, also said it would take time to set up a summit with Trump, which both men have said they want.
"We need to ensure that our teams prepare issues that are extremely important for both the United States and Russia, including―but not only―on the Ukrainian track, in order to reach solutions acceptable to both sides," Putin said in televised remarks.
Ukraine and European governments were not invited to Tuesday's talks in the Saudi capital, which magnified their concern that Russia and the US might cut a deal that ignores their vital security interests.
Trump says Europe must step up to guarantee any ceasefire deal.
Zelenskyy has suggested giving US companies the right to extract valuable minerals in Ukraine in return for US security guarantees, but said Trump was not offering that.
Zelenskyy said at a news conference the US had given Ukraine $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in budget support, and that American demands for $500 billion in minerals are "not a serious conversation", and that he could not sell his country.
Kellogg, the US Ukraine envoy, said as he arrived in Kyiv that he expected substantial talks. "We understand the need for security guarantees," Kellogg told reporters, adding that part of his mission would be "to sit and listen." It was important the Kellogg visit be constructive, Zelenskyy said in his nightly radio address, and that he was counting on "the unity of Europe and the pragmatism of America." Zelenskyy earlier said he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any settlement.
Trump's US policy reversal clashed with allies in the 27-member European Union, whose envoys on Wednesday agreed on a sixteenth package of sanctions against Russia, including on aluminum and vessels believed to be carrying sanctioned Russian oil.
The EU's diplomatic service has proposed boosting the bloc's military aid for Ukraine, aiming to show continued support for Kyiv, though no quick decision is expected.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday that while there was no complete agreement in the EU on how to proceed, "we need to keep a cool head and continue to support Ukraine".
