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Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens
US president warns Ukrainian leader he ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left’
Donald Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and warned that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left”, in a deepening rift between the two leaders.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the US President hit out at his Ukrainian counterpart hours after Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and disputed his $500bn bill for aid to Kyiv.
The bitter exchange comes after Trump upended decades of US policy by convening bilateral talks with Moscow on the Ukraine war without inviting Kyiv and blaming Zelenskyy for the 2022 Russian invasion.
In his most overt threat yet to end the war on terms favourable to Moscow, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
He added that Zelenskyy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won”.
Speaking in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy, who was sidelined this week from high-profile talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh over the conflict, blasted Trump for pushing “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia”.
“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly . . . is living in this disinformation bubble,” he said.
He made his comments as Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the US-Russian rapprochement and argued that European leaders had excluded themselves from the talks.
Zelenskyy’s retort was prompted by Trump’s remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, in which the US president falsely claimed Kyiv had started the conflict, the largest on European soil since the second world war.
Trump added he was “very disappointed” that Ukraine was “upset about not having a seat” at Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia.
“Today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited’,” the US president said. “Well, you’ve been there for three years . . . you should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after the US and Russia agreed to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation” on ending the war, in their first high-profile talks since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Amid a dramatic reversal of decades of US policy towards Russia, Trump last week announced that he had spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war, without consulting Kyiv or its European allies.
In his first comments since his conversation with Trump, Putin said he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”.
“The US negotiators were totally different — they were open to a negotiating process without any biases or judgments about what was done in the past,” he said. “They intend to work together.”
Putin said Russia would not “speculate” on US-European relations, but claimed EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and said “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.
Putin said he would meet Trump “with pleasure” but that any summit required substantial preparation.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that elections should be held in Ukraine, after the US president claimed that his Ukrainian counterpart had an approval rating of just 4 per cent.
Pointing to polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which in February found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their president, Zelenskyy said: “So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work.”
Putin has long sought regime change in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president also disputed Trump’s claim that Ukraine owed the US $500bn worth of rare minerals and other resources for past military assistance.
Kyiv has spent $320bn on its war efforts against Russia, with $200bn coming from international military assistance, Zelenskyy said.
“The United States has contributed approximately $60bn so far, with an additional $31.5 billion in financial assistance,” he said. “That’s $67bn in weaponry and $31.5bn in direct budgetary support.”
US state department data broadly supports Zelenskyy’s figure for US military support for Ukraine.
This is disgusting... It's not even subtle how they're trying to change reality. If you weren't afraid before, this is terrifying.
Next we'll be putting boots on the ground to "liberate Ukraine from Zelensky's tyranny..."
Jesus fuck that's scary. I thought we europeans would need to fend of Russia in the near future. Now it might be the USA as well.
I quite sincerely believe that the long term goal is for the US to formally ally with Russia in a war against the EU.
I'm not kidding.
WW3 is probably going to be US/Russia/China vs Europe/Canada/Mexico/Japan?
China is going to sit on the sidelines and swoop in suddenly to “win” the war, just like the US did in both World Wars previously. Being the only country not rebuilding is an attractive position to be in when vying for economic dominance.
I wonder if the geographical proximity to Russia will allow China to do that? American was able to sit it out because of, you know, oceans.
I’m not entirely sure if geographical proximity is even relevant any more in a world where spaceflight exists.
It's very relevant. Wars are still mostly fought by troops on the ground, and you have to be able to get them to the place you want to invade. About the only other option is to try to physically destroy a hostile country with nuclear weapons, but that's pretty much guaranteed to be disastrous for all parties involved.
That’s why the Russian world politics strategy prescribes fomenting war between China and India. To keep them busy while Russia fuck Europe with the USA’s blessing.
Chinas economy is crumbling as the youngest generation refuses to start after a historic flood season. Considering the new tariffs which eliminates Chinas ‘cheap labor’ sales tactic, China is expected to struggle throughout trumps presidency.
I'm not so sure China will be on their side.
They're kinda backing Russia already materially and supporting the Trump culture war
They're playing the long game and having everyone else destroy themselves so that they can swoop in afterward. Much like how the US did after WWII when most of the world was rebuilding.
If they were, there wouldn’t be a real war
America is so split, I think we’d see a red America (allied with Russia and/or China) and a blue America (allied with Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia) fighting itself. There would be defections, sabotage, and theft of all American military stuff.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I would hope there’s enough good people in the military or former military with connections that would fight any alliance with Russia.
The only ppl who believe that are engaging in radical politics. That’s you! Even in the most blue state, there are red areas. Even in California, there are red counties. America is not so divided that red voters in New York would love to Russia. If you think it is that divided, then maybe you are part of the people creating the division.
Nah man. I agree with you.
I’m only saying hypothetically, if America were to ally and there was no way to come to a unified decision internally then you would likely see a division. I’m not saying that I think it would literally happen at all. I really don’t think it would. I’m an American in my 40s and Russia has always been the big bad boogie man you don’t want to become.
You clearly aren’t Mexican if you think Mexico would join forces with Canada before America lol
Would we be considered "an ally" is Putin is running both countries? We be more like a satellite office of the Russian empire.
I can tell you don’t work for the government because only someone uninformed would legitimately think there are enough Russians on earth to overtake 330 million Americans.
I can tell you don't follow politics or the news if you think they need to "overtake" us when the elected president is capitulating to their every desire while half the voting population cheers it on.
I somewhat believe that there won't be a U.S. if that begins to happen. At some point, the states themselves will have to do something drastic for their own sake rather than let that idiot do something so inconceivably bad as starting a global conflict.
Maybe it's unfounded optimism, but I feel like the United States would self-immolate before a war against the EU could take off.
Willing to put your money where your mouth is? Texas would have broken off decades ago if it was a feasible idea.
I’m with Adderbox on this. I think there are too many people within the gov or military that would not just up and join Russia. There would be dissent and sabotage, perhaps even a civil war here before America would just straight up join Russia.
America looks divided on the global stage but I’ve never met an American IRL who vocalized a want to become Russian. It’s a ‘Russian mail order bride’ because most Americans don’t want to be Russian.
Has there ever been Time in history when the European block showed a majority favoritism towards America?? I’ve never known a Europe that didn’t hate America. What’s new?!?
You 100% will. Maybe not directly, but get ready.
bad news, truly, this is what i believe from all evidence i've seen, most european nations have no standing armies, and no conventional weapons stockpiles, only uk and france have nukes. europe will begin to cauterize ukraine soon in order to concentrate on their own borders, but their defense spending has been so low, for so long, they couldn't offer a token defense to the russians (not even mentioning the americans) in 10 years, and that's if they started diverting enourmous parts of their gdp currrently going to social services like health care, yesterday
Wherever you're getting your information from, you should probably look elsewhere.
Honey, America doesn’t have battle tanks because they are outdated. Carrying ppl into war via vehicles is some 1940s war behavior. Modern war is focused on subs, planes, and targeted missiles. Less waste, less civilian death, more precise. Unlike Europe, America has enough war experience to learn what works best. America is sending their outdated handmidown tanks, not a B83.
Honey, you're a one hour old account with nothing but horribly bad takes on everything.
Good luck
Is there an internet law that says I’m not allowed to comment the day I sign up? Stop this mentality lol
Yes. It's rule #33, "Lurk more -- it's never enough".
😭
You got video of that?
I think you are overestimating Russia. Sure Ukraine has US support, but it’s still a fraction of what fighting all of NATO (minus the US) would look like.
I’m more worried about economic and propaganda warfare. For instance, y’all need to regulate the shit out of engagement-driven, commercial social media before it’s too late.
ok. best of luck with that. i don't think i'm overstimating russia, or understimated european capability, and more importantly european resolve.
Yes you are.
I ninja edited, but the point I am trying to make is that if you focus on physical military defense, the US and Russia are going to destroy you in the economic, cyber, and most critically, public opinion space. Demagogues will brainwash everyone without a single shot fired, as they are already doing.
If that were true then what have EU countries been sending to Ukraine this entire time? IOUs?
https://ukraineaidtracker.org/en/report
Exactly
I'm sorry, but that's absolutely patently false information.
https://www.worldatlas.com/society/the-largest-standing-armies-of-the-european-union.html
Top 10 Largest Standing Militaries Of The European Union
(Yes, I may be showing off that I learned how to make tables today).
Trump can act this brash because Europe is nearly defenseless. Just considering the land mass and population sizes, there is no competition. But then consider that Europe isn’t as coordinated as America, there is room for reduced performance in war. But the biggest factor is that Europe has no defense money. They have relied on America to save them for over a century and the consequences are: Europe can’t intervene with them Trump Putin talks because they didn’t earn a seat at the table.
That wouldn't surprise me. Trump is without doubt serving Russian interests. Next, Trump will try to pull the US out of NATO, after that he'll push for an amendment to scrapping the maximum of two presidential terms. US democracy is being rapidly dismantled along with the West.
Well it was the same narrative bs with the WMD in 2003 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
They have precious minerals they aren't willing to give us. We've done something similar for oil, so your scenario seems realistic.
If you are referring to Iraq, not selling oil to the US wasn't their big sin; it was trying to establish international oil trading in a currency other than USD.
If this is terrifying you, get therapy.