US President Donald Trump chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, saying he had done a “terrible job” and could have attended peace talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia if he had wanted to, according to Reuters.
Donald Trump’s statement at a press conference comes hours after he called Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” on social media. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” he wrote.
The United States has officially begun a series of negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Notably, President Zelensky was not present at the meeting, and he stated after the high-level talks that his country would not accept any outcome of the war because it had been excluded from the peace negotiations.
During a press conference at his Florida residence, Donald Trump reiterated, “Russia wants to do something. They want to put an end to the barbarism that is taking place over there. Thousands of soldiers are being killed every week. Apart from Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, many Koreans have been killed. We want it to end. It’s an unnecessary war. “It should never have happened.”
He also blamed Ukrainian President Zelensky for sparking the three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He stated, “Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You shouldn’t have started it. You could’ve struck a deal.”
Trump, who is attempting to end the fighting on terms that Kyiv claims are too favourable to Moscow, slammed Zelensky in an extended social media post on his Truth Social platform, calling the Ukrainian a “dictator without elections”.
“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion dollars to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a war that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle,” Trump said of Zelensky, who was a popular television star in Ukraine before running for president.
The US has obligated approximately $183 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to the US special inspector general, who is in charge of overseeing American assistance to Ukraine.
While Ukraine claims to have been excluded from the negotiations, the US secretary of state has assured them that they will play an important role in any decisions made regarding the conflict-ridden territory.
According to the Associated Press, Marco Rubio stated, “No one is being sidelined here. Obviously, we will engage and consult with Ukraine, our European partners, and others. However, the Russian side will eventually be indispensable to this effort.”
