United States President Donald Trump has escalated his feud with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator with out elections”.
In a prolonged and scathing post on his social media platform Fact Social on Wednesday, Trump additionally accused Zelenskyy of taking US cash and embroiling the nation in an countless battle.
“Consider it, a modestly profitable comic, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked america of America into spending $350 Billion {Dollars}, to enter a Battle that couldn’t be gained, that by no means needed to begin,” Trump, a former actuality TV star, wrote.
The US president continued by insinuating that Zelenskyy had ulterior motives for wanting Ukraine to proceed combating for its territory.
“Zelenskyy most likely desires to maintain the ‘gravy prepare’ going,” Trump stated, utilizing an idiom that means the Ukraine is receiving straightforward cash.
The social media submit marked Trump’s most barbed rhetoric but in direction of the Ukrainian president, a US ally, as he seeks to repel a full-scale Russian invasion that started in February 2022.
However Trump’s general posture has change into more and more hostile in direction of Zelenskyy, as he and his authorities draw nearer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Already, European allies have responded with outrage over Trump’s newest remarks, saying his feedback are detrimental to the peace course of.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as an illustration, responded forcefully towards the allegations that Zelenskyy was a “dictator” for not holding elections in wartime.
“It’s merely incorrect and harmful to disclaim President Zelenskyy democratic legitimacy,” Scholz instructed the newspaper Spiegel shortly after Trump’s submit.
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the elected head of state of Ukraine. The truth that correct elections can’t be held in the midst of a battle is in keeping with the necessities of the Ukrainian structure and electoral legal guidelines. Nobody ought to declare in any other case.”
A development of accelerating hostility
The battle in Ukraine will attain its third anniversary on February 24, with no clear finish in sight.
However upon taking workplace final month on January 20, Trump promised to be a “peacemaker and unifier”, implying he might carry international conflicts to a swift conclusion.
On February 12, he made a shock announcement on social media: He had simply concluded a “prolonged and extremely productive cellphone name” with President Putin and had agreed to “begin negotiations instantly” to finish the battle in Ukraine.
The announcement got here on the heels of a prisoner trade between the US and Russia, and at first, Zelenskyy expressed optimism concerning the dialogue.
However inside hours, the temper had soured, with Zelenskyy and his European allies accusing the US of chopping them out of the peace negotiations altogether.
This week, US officers travelled to Saudi Arabia to fulfill Russian officers for the primary high-level talks between the 2 international locations since Russia’s full-scale invasion started. No Ukrainian or European representatives took half within the dialogue.
Trump and Putin have additionally confirmed plans to go to each other’s international locations within the coming months.
In the meantime, Trump and his officers have been pressuring Ukraine to make concessions.
Final week, as an illustration, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed a gathering of European allies that it was an “illusionary aim” for Ukraine to hunt the return of all its territory relationship again to 2014, when Russia invaded the peninsula of Crimea.
“We are going to solely finish this devastating battle and set up a sturdy peace by coupling allied power with a sensible evaluation of the battlefield,” Hegseth stated.
“We would like, such as you, a sovereign and affluent Ukraine. However we should begin by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal.”
Trump echoed these sentiments himself, and on Tuesday, he accused Zelenskyy of initiating the invasion himself.
“You must have by no means began it. You could possibly have made a deal. I might have made a deal for Ukraine,” Trump stated in remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He additionally argued that Zelenskyy solely has himself responsible for being excluded from the peace negotiations.
“At this time, I heard, ‘Oh, nicely, we weren’t invited.’ Properly, you’ve been there for 3 years. You must have ended it,” Trump stated.
Russia has lengthy argued its full-scale invasion of Ukraine was obligatory to guard civilians and stop the nation from becoming a member of the NATO alliance.
Putin and his allies have referred to a Chilly Battle-era remark from a US official saying that NATO would increase “not one inch” eastward, although no such coverage was ever formalised or written down.
However Ukraine and its European allies have denounced the invasion as an unprovoked act of aggression, one which displays Putin’s territorial ambitions in Japanese Europe.
On Tuesday, within the wake of Trump’s newest social media submit, German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock argued that the one actual dictatorship was in Russia.
“When you have a look at the true world as an alternative of simply firing off a tweet, then you realize who in Europe has to stay within the situations of a dictatorship,” she stated.
Al Jazeera correspondent Kimberly Halkett stated that Trump’s newest feedback on Zelenskyy have been an instance of his “basic bullying”.
“He’s actually making an attempt to decrease the Ukrainian chief by referring to his earlier occupation: that he was a comic earlier than he turned the chief of Ukraine,” she stated.
Underneath the tenure of former President Joe Biden, the US stood firmly by Ukraine, together with by sending the war-torn nation billions of dollars in army gear and help.
However Halkett warned that Trump’s newest remarks sign a “beautiful reversal” of US coverage.
“What the Biden administration did beforehand was isolate Russia,” she stated. “Now, the Trump administration is doing the precise reverse.”
However in his submit on Tuesday, Trump accused Zelenskyy of enjoying Biden “like a fiddle”. He forged himself as uniquely capable of safe peace for Ukraine.
“We’re efficiently negotiating an finish to the Battle with Russia, one thing all admit solely ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” the US president wrote.
He additionally supplied some ominous phrases to his Ukrainian counterpart. “A Dictator with out Elections, Zelenskyy higher transfer quick or he isn’t going to have a Nation left.”
Zelenskyy has warned that it will be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to outlive Russia’s persevering with assault with out US assist, and he has known as for a united US-Europe entrance towards the aggression.
In his personal social media submit on Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated his place that Putin was to not be trusted — and urged Europe and the US to work collectively to hunt a decision to the battle.
“We can not permit Putin to deceive everybody once more,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Earlier than any potential negotiations, all companions should clearly perceive that robust safety ensures are the precedence for lasting peace.”
