Britain today reaffirmed its support for Volodymyr Zelensky after Donald Trump doubled down on his madcap claim that Ukraine’s president was a ‘dictator’.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK continues to stand firm alongside the government in Kyiv in the wake of the US president’s astonishing comments.
Trump repeated yesterday’s attack on the US ally at an appearance at a conference in Miami overnight, criticising Zelensky for being upset at being left out of US-Russia peace talks that would carve up his country.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Forum, an organisation run by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Trump repeated debunked claims that the Ukrainian president had low poll ratings.
‘He refuses to have elections, he’s slow,’ Trump said to an audience including Elon Musk.
‘Somebody said, ‘oh no, his polls are good’. Give me a break. Every city is being demolished. They look like a demolition site. Every single one of them… in the meantime, we’re successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia.’
Overnight the Russians did not try to hide their joy, with former president and Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev tweeting: ‘If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud.’
Last night Sir Keir Starmer telephoned president Zelensky to reiterate the UK’s support and likened him to Winston Churchill – who also did not face elections during wartime.
And this morning Ms Nandy told the BBC: ‘It was only last night that he (Starmer spoke to president Zelensky to affirm our support for Ukraine, to make clear there can be no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine and to be clear that that we support the president who was elected by the people of Ukraine and hasn’t been re-elected because of Russian aggression.’
Britain today reaffirmed its support for Volodymyr Zelensky after Donald Trump doubled down on his madcap claim that Ukraine’s president was a ‘dictator’.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Forum, an organisation run by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Trump repeated debunked claims that the Ukraininan president had low poll ratings.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK continues to stand firm alongside the government in Kyiv in the wake of the US president’s astonishing comments.
Writing on his platform Truth Social, Trump shared an extraordinary and length tirade, condemning both Zelensky and the billions in aid the Biden administration had given Ukraine during Russia’s bloody war on the country.
‘Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, 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 US and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle,’ Trump wrote.
‘I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…’ he posted.
He complained that the US was giving Kyiv more funds than European nations were, despite their proximity to the war, and said that Zelensky had played Joe Biden ‘like a fiddle’.
In what appeared to be a thinly-veiled threat, Trump went on to say that ‘Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.’
Trump, who has abandoned the US policy of isolating Moscow, said his administration is ‘successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.’
He claimed that ‘Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelensky probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.’
Writing on his platform Truth Social, Trump shared an extraordinary and length tirade, condemning both Zelensky and the billions in aid the Biden administration had given Ukraine during Russia’s bloody war on the country.
Doubling down on earlier unfounded claims that Zelensky was only supported by four per cent of Ukrainians, Trump added that the President ‘refuses to have Elections’ and ‘is very low in Ukrainian Polls’.
Trump later added as he headlined Wednesday’s FII Priority Summit in Miami Beach that Zelensky was a ‘dictator’ and a ‘comedian’ who cratered his country.
‘How can you be high when every city is being demolished?’ Trump mused, wondering how Zelensky could survive the elections the U.S. president is demanding be held in the war-torn country.
Asked whether Sir Keir Starmer should have publicly contradicted Donald Trump over his comments calling the Ukrainian leader a ‘dictator’, Ms Nandy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The Prime Minister has made his own view clear.
‘He spoke to President Zelensky in the last few days and made clear that he understands, first of all that he is an elected leader, and we consider him in the United Kingdom to be a legitimate leader.’
Asked whether she was saying Mr Trump is wrong, Ms Nandy added: ‘We take a different view. We do not consider President Zelensky to be a dictator.’
She said that Mr Zelensky was ‘elected by the people’ and ‘Russian aggression’ is the reason elections have not been held.
‘We stand with Ukraine, and our belief in that our support for Ukraine is unshakeable,’ she added.
US and Russian delegations attending the bilateral meeting at the Diriyah Palace on Tuesday
Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who became a close ally of Mr Zelensky while in office, said several of Mr Trump’s claims were wrong. But he also urged European leaders to ‘stop being scandalised’ about the US President’s comments and ‘start helping him to end this war.’
He added: ‘Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action. In particular the US can see $300billion of frozen Russian assets – mainly in Belgium. That is cash that could and should be used to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support.
‘Why is Europe preventing the unfreezing of Putin‘s cash? The US believes Belgium, France and other countries are blocking. It’s absurd. We need to get serious and fast.’
Sir Keir Starmer will next week meet with Donald Trump to discuss a Ukraine peacekeeping plan which will include fewer than 30,000 European troops to monitor any ceasefire deal Russia may agree to, sources say.
He is expected to detail to the American leader an Anglo-French strategy for a ‘reassurance force’ made up of members of European militaries that would be placed far from the current frontlines.
This force would rely on ‘technical monitoring’, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, drones and satellites to provide a ‘complete picture of what is going on’, a Western official told the Telegraph.
The official added, however, that the peacekeeping force would be backed up by ‘enough firepower to monitor and shoot’ any Russian attacks down.
Naval patrol vessels would also be sent to the Black Sea to monitor Russian threats to the waters around Ukraine.
The plan falls significantly short of the 200,000 troops requested by Zelensky in the event of a ceasefire.
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