Trump Trades Barbs With Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump traded barbs this week, triggering an extraordinary breakdown in Ukraine-U.S. relations as the White House gears up for future Russia-Ukraine peace talks with the Kremlin—notably without Zelensky’s presence.

The strife began last Wednesday, when Trump appeared to make unilateral concessions for Ukraine during a nearly 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call sparked worry that the White House was sidelining Ukraine and its European allies from peace talks. Those fears worsened with the news that top U.S. and Russian officials would convene in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday—without Ukrainian or European officials present—to discuss peace talks and pave the way for a future Trump-Putin summit.

The meeting surprised and angered Zelensky, leading him to openly criticize the U.S. president’s approach. The United States is seeking a quick cease-fire by “saying things that Putin really likes,” Zelensky told a German broadcaster on Monday, ahead of the Riyadh meeting.

That criticism seems to have angered Trump. Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday, Trump mocked Zelensky for complaining about not being invited to the Riyadh talks and instead falsely blamed the Ukrainian leader, whose country Russia brutally invaded in February 2022, for starting the war.

Trump then escalated the war of words in a lengthy post on his Truth Social account on Wednesday. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote, adding (without evidence) that Zelensky has low approval ratings and saying that he had played former U.S. President Joe Biden “like a fiddle.” He accused Zelensky of not wanting peace with Russia because he “probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going”—seemingly referring to U.S. aid.