President Trump has accused Ukraine of “starting war” with Russia and has blamed President Zelensky, not Vladimir Putin, in a remark that is likely to cause fresh outrage from across the world.
Speaking at an impromptu press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, February 18, Mr Trump said: “Today I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited’ [to the US-Russia talks].
“Well, you’ve been there for three years, you should have ended it three years. You should have never started it, you could have made a deal.”
In response to Zelensky’s complaints at not being invited to the US-Russia peace talks, the US President said: “I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat, well, they’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that.
“This could have been settled very easily. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.
“That would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land – and no people would have killed, and no city would have been demolished.”
Mr Trump also pointed to Zelensky’s approval ratings – standing at 4% – and challenged him to call an election.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine,” he declared.
Zelensky, who has remained in office after serving his five-year term with Ukraine under martial law, told German public broadcaster ARD on Tuesday: “I am the president of Ukraine because 73% of people voted for me”.
“And today I’m president because the majority in my country support me. I’m a patriot, just like the people defending our country.”
Mr Trump denied his demand for an election in Ukraine was spurred by the Russians.
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President Trump’s attack on Zelensky was supported by his ally and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who responded with a 100 % emoji to an X post that said: “Zelenskyy doesn’t want peace, he wants money and power.”
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Riyadh on Tuesday for the first in-person talks between the two countries since the invasion and agreed to appoint teams to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Zelensky postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia – intended for Wednesday – until next month after it hosted the US-Russia talks.
During a press conference in Turkey, the Ukrainian leader disapproved of the talks “taking place between representatives of Russia and representatives of the United States of America,” adding: “About Ukraine – about Ukraine again – and without Ukraine.”
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