Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to claims from United States President Donald Trump who suggested Ukraine was responsible for starting the war with Russia.
The US president said from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that a “half-baked” negotiator could have secured a settlement years ago “without the loss of much land.”
“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years ... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said to reporters on Tuesday evening.
This came as Zelenskyy had earlier criticised ongoing discussions between Russia and the US which have allegedly been excluding Kyiv.
President Zelenskyy said efforts to end the war must be “fair” and involve European countries.
Talks “are taking place between representatives of Russia and representatives of the United States of America. About Ukraine – about Ukraine again – and without Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
He also postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia, where the US-Russia talks took place.
In response to Trump’s accusations, Zelenskyy said he seems to be trapped in a “disinformation bubble” and added that Ukraine was not for sale.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine – I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating – and where a country has been blown to smithereens,” said Trump who has been calling for an election in Ukraine.
“Most of the cities are laying on their sides. The buildings are collapsed. It looks like a massive demolition site,” said the President.
However, an opinion poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy.
“As we are talking about 4%, we have seen this disinformation, we understand it’s coming from Russia,” Zelenskyy told a news conference on Wednesday, saying any attempts to replace him in power during the war would be unsuccessful.
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