US President Donald Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator,” raising tensions hours after US-Russia talks over Ukraine.
“I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and millions have unnecessarily died,” Trump says in a post on Truth Social.
“Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” he added.
Trump’s harsh words came in response to an earlier statement by Zelensky, who said that the US president was living in Russia’s “disinformation space,” following Trump’s allegations that Zelensky’s role as president was illegitimate due to no elections in Ukraine, echoing Kremlin narrative.
Ukraine was scheduled to hold a presidential election in March or April 2024, concluding Zelensky’s first five-year term. The vote was postponed as the country’s constitution does not permit elections under martial law, which was declared on 24 February 2022, the day when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin repeatedly sought to use the delay to portray Zelensky as “illegitimate,” a claim rejected by Kyiv as a distortion of the constitution.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said that he is open to discussing elections in Ukraine, but this is not something that his compatriots want due to concerns that lifting martial law could weaken the country’s defense.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised over the most recent presidential election in Russia in March 2024, when incumbent President Vladimir Putin won his fifth term with 88% of the vote.
Putin faced no credible opposition due to several candidates, including Alexei Navalny, being barred from running by the Central Election Commission, among other irregularities.
Most international observers ruled that the the vote was neither free nor fair.
