US President Donald Trump on Wednesday denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as 'a dictator without elections' and said he had better move fast to secure peace or he would have no country left.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war, but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday he and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte discussed the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv in any discussion of a settlement of the nearly three-year war against Russia.
Trump says Zelensky is ‘a dictator’ in danger of losing his country
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “a dictator without elections” and said he had better move fast to secure peace or he would have no country left.
Trump spoke hours after Zelensky hit back at his suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social media platform.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said no one could force his country to give in. “We will defend our right to exist,” said Sybiha on X.
Zelensky’s five-year term was supposed to end in 2024 but presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion.
Russia has seized some 20% of Ukraine and is slowly but steadily gaining more territory in the east. Moscow said its “special military operation” responded to an existential threat posed by Kyiv’s pursuit of Nato membership. Ukraine and the West call Russia’s action an imperialist land grab.
Zelensky, who met Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Wednesday, said he would like Trump’s team to have “more truth” about Ukraine, a day after Trump said Ukraine “should never have started” the conflict with Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s assertion that his approval rating was just 4% was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail.
“We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky told Ukrainian TV.
The latest poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, from early February, says 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelensky.
Less than a month into his presidency, Trump has upended US policy on Ukraine and Russia, ending Washington’s bid to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine with a Trump-Putin phone call and talks between senior US and Russian officials.
Trump said he may meet Putin this month. The Kremlin said such a meeting could take longer to prepare, but Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said it expected a number of US companies to return to Russia as early as the second quarter.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine would not be barred from peace negotiations but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.
Putin, speaking a day after Russia and the US held their first talks on how to end the three-year-old conflict, also said it would take time to set up a summit with Trump, which both men have said they want.
“But we are in such a situation that it is not enough to meet to have tea, coffee, sit and talk about the future,” said Putin in televised remarks.
“We need to ensure that our teams prepare issues that are extremely important for both the United States and Russia, including — but not only — on the Ukrainian track, in order to reach solutions acceptable to both sides,” he said.
Ukraine and European governments were not invited to Tuesday’s talks in the Saudi capital, which magnified their concern that Russia and the US might cut a deal that ignores their vital security interests.
Putin said no one was excluding Ukraine from talks and that there was therefore no need for a “hysterical” reaction to the US-Russia talks.
Trump says Europe must step up to guarantee any ceasefire deal. Zelensky has suggested giving US companies the right to extract valuable minerals in Ukraine in return for US security guarantees, but said Trump was not offering that.
Zelensky told a press conference the US had given Ukraine $67-billion in weapons and $31.5-billion in budget support, and that US demands for $500-billion in minerals were “not a serious conversation”, and that he could not sell his country.
Kellogg, the US Ukraine envoy said as he arrived in Kyiv that he expected substantial talks as the war approaches its three-year mark. “We understand the need for security guarantees,” Kellogg told journalists, saying that part of his mission would be “to sit and listen”.
Trump’s US policy reversal clashed with allies in the 27-member European Union, whose envoys on Wednesday agreed on a 16th package of sanctions against Russia, including on aluminium and vessels believed to be carrying sanctioned Russian oil.
The EU’s diplomatic service has proposed boosting the bloc’s military aid for Ukraine, aiming to show continued support for Kyiv, though no quick decision is expected.
The proposal says the main goals would be to supply at least 1.5 million rounds of large-calibre artillery ammunition, as well as air defence systems, missiles for deep precision strikes and drones.
European officials have been left shocked and flat-footed by the Trump administration’s moves on Ukraine in recent days. Chief among their fears is that they can no longer be sure of US military protection and that Trump will do a Ukraine peace deal with Putin that undermines Kyiv and broader European security.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday that while there was no complete agreement in the EU on how to proceed, “We need to keep a cool head and continue to support Ukraine.”
Putin says Ukraine won’t be shut out of peace deal
Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war, but success would depend on raising the level of trust between Moscow and Washington.
Putin, speaking a day after Russia and the US held their first talks on how to end the three-year conflict, also said it would take time to set up a summit with Trump, which both men have said they want, and there was no point in meeting just to drink tea.
He praised the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting in Saudi Arabia, where Russia and the US agreed to appoint negotiating teams on Ukraine and discussed ways to reset their bilateral relations, which the Kremlin described as “below zero” under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
“In my opinion, we have taken a first step to resume work in a variety of areas that are of mutual interest,” said Putin in televised comments. These included issues relating to the Middle East, global energy markets and cooperation in space, he said.
“Without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States, it is impossible to resolve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis.”
Ukraine and European governments were not invited to the talks in the Saudi capital, which heightened their concern that Russia and the US might cut a deal that ignores their vital security interests.
But Putin said Russia had never rejected talks with the Europeans or with Kyiv, and it was they who had refused to talk to Moscow.
“If they want, please, let these negotiations take place. And we will be ready to return to the table for negotiations,” he said.
“No one is excluding Ukraine,” he added, saying that there was therefore no need for a “hysterical” reaction to the US-Russia talks.
Putin, who since Trump’s November election victory has made a series of flattering comments towards him, praised the American’s “restraint” in the face of what he called “boorish" behaviour by US allies.
He said he would be “happy to meet with Donald”.
“But we are in such a situation that it is not enough to meet to have tea, coffee, sit and talk about the future. We need to ensure that our teams prepare issues that are extremely important for both the United States and Russia, including — but not only — on the Ukrainian track, in order to reach solutions acceptable to both sides.”
Zelensky discusses security guarantees with Nato chief
Zelensky said on Wednesday he and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte discussed the importance of security guarantees for Kyiv in any discussion of a settlement of the nearly three-year-old war against Russia.
Writing on X, Zelensky said he and Rutte examined contacts with Ukraine’s partners and “coordinated our next steps”.
“We cannot allow Putin to deceive everyone again,” wrote Zelensky. “Before any potential negotiations, all partners must clearly understand that strong security guarantees are the priority for lasting peace.”
Macron, Starmer to visit Washington
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Washington next week, amid other meetings aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, said US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Wednesday.
Asked about the chances of reaching a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Waltz told Fox News in an interview: “We’re engaging on all sides, and then the next step is we’re going to put technical teams forward to start talking more details.”
Russian forces advance on Ukraine’s critical minerals
Russia, like Trump, covets Ukraine’s natural resources — and on the ground its forces are closing in on a giant lithium deposit.
Trump said this month he wants Kyiv to hand over large quantities of its critical minerals in return for US military support, prompting Ukrainian Zelensky to declare: “Let’s do a deal.”
Yet as Washington and Moscow prepare for negotiations aimed at ending the three-year-old war, the reality is that it’s Putin who’s taking increasing control of Ukraine’s riches.
Russian forces, which have already seized a fifth of Ukraine including reserves of rare earths, are now little more than 6km from the Shevchenko lithium deposit and advancing on it from three different angles, according to open-source data from the Ukrainian military blog Deep State.
Lithium is a coveted global resource because of its use in a host of industries and technologies from mobile phones to electric cars. Ukraine has reserves of about 500,000 tonnes, and Russia double that, according to US government estimates.
Shevchenko is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow has claimed as its territory, an annexation that Kyiv and Western powers say is illegal. It is one of the biggest lithium deposits in Ukraine and sits at a depth that would allow commercial mining.
“Given the current battlefield tempo, it’s likely that the Russians will reach this area in the coming weeks,” said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Rochan military consultancy in Poland, who has just returned from a research trip to Ukraine.
He said the seizure of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, while not the main war aim, was among Russia’s strategic goals.
“Ukrainian commanders I spoke to said that when they were looking in which direction and on which axis the Russians were attacking it was clear that their objective was also the capture of natural resources,” he added.
Russian troops have been gaining ground in the east for months, throwing huge resources into an unrelenting offensive.
Zelensky, speaking to Reuters in an interview this month, unfurled a once-classified map on a table in his office showing numerous mineral deposits, including a broad strip of land in the east marked as containing rare earths. Around half of it looked to be on Russia’s side of the current frontlines.
The Ukrainian leader, who turned down a first draft of a minerals deal with Trump saying it did not include sufficient security guarantees, has said he wants to discuss the fate of resources on Russian-controlled territory with Trump.
He said Russia knew in detail where Ukraine’s critical resources were from Soviet-era geological surveys that had been taken back to Moscow when Kyiv gained independence in 1991.
There are few reliable independent estimates of what proportion of Ukraine’s natural resources Moscow currently commands. What is undisputed is that Ukraine is gradually losing control of its mineral wealth.
Vasily Koltashov, an economist and political analyst, said that Trump’s desire for a grand minerals deal would prove academic if Ukraine lost the war.
“It’s not him and his appetite for rare earth metals that will decide who gets what,” he told Russian state TV this month. “Russia is winning in the theatre of war.”
Dismay and defiance in Kyiv as Trump takes ‘our enemy’s side’
Ukrainians rejected an extraordinary broadside by Trump on Wednesday, saying they had no choice but to fight on against Russia as their key backer engages in talks with their enemy without Kyiv’s participation.
Trump on Tuesday made a verbal attack on Zelensky, accusing him of starting the war with Russia, calling for elections to be held, and claiming the Ukrainian president had 4% popularity despite Ukrainian polling to the contrary.
As Zelensky gave a press conference in which he said that Trump was living in a “disinformation bubble”, Ukrainians in central Kyiv voiced deep dismay at the new line emerging from Washington, hitherto Kyiv’s most important wartime ally.
“I think this is the wrong policy and the wrong accusations of Ukraine. They are accusing the victim, and he [Trump] is taking our enemy’s side,” said Oksana Krylova (50).
She said Ukraine had no option but to continue to fight for its survival, almost exactly three years since Russia invaded.
“We do not have a different choice, we are forced to do it otherwise we will just be destroyed.”
Ihor Vitek (54), a retired officer, told Reuters he thought that Ukraine should follow its own policy independently of the US and try to enlist as much European support as possible.
“If America does not want to help, then let it stay in its own sphere, let it deal with the Indo-China region. We need to contact Europe, first of all, the Baltic countries, with Poland and defend our interests.”
Particularly worrying for the Ukrainian government is Trump’s call for elections, which have not been held throughout the war because of martial law that prohibits holding a ballot.
Zelensky, whose public trust rating is above 50%, according to opinion polls, has said elections will happen straight after the end of the war when martial law is lifted.
Kyiv residents interviewed by Reuters voiced opposition to the idea of holding an election now.
“Elections during the war are impossible. A lot of people have left the country. This is a totally irrelevant question, to spend resources for the elections during the war,” said Olha Yurkevych, a 59-year-old artist.
Ukrainian legislators have repeatedly voiced fears that an election would be highly destabilising and also vulnerable to Russian meddling if it were held during the war.
They also point to organisational problems like how to have soldiers fighting at the front vote as well as millions of internally displaced people and those living abroad.
Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, said his polls showed that the majority of Ukrainians were against any elections during the war. DM