Trump slammed over Zelensky ‘dictator’ swipe as 'dangerous' comments criticised

The international community has been sent into chaos this week, as US president Donald Trump turns his attention to ending the war in Ukraine and securing a deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin – while at the same time branding democratically Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” and falsely claiming it was that country which started the war three years ago.

Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, Trump told reporters: “Today I heard, ‘oh, we weren’t invited’ [to US-Russia peace talks]’. Well, you’ve been there for three years, you should have ended it three years [ago]. You should have never started it, you could have made a deal.

Trump also claimed Zelensky has a “four per cent approval rating”, which goes against polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology back in December which revealed 52 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their leader.

Zelensky ended up clapping back on Wednesday when he said the Republican was “living in this disinformation space”.

Trump then went further in a rant on his Truth Social platform that same day, writing that Zelensky ”refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukranian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing [former US president Joe] Biden ‘like a fiddle’.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

The reason why Ukraine hasn’t had an election is because Zelensky declared martial law in February 2022, the same month that Russia – not Ukraine – started the war by violating international law and invading Zelensky’s country.

UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer - who attended an emergency summit in Paris earlier this week to discuss Europe’s response to Trump’s latest remarks, and said he was prepared to station British troops in Ukraine following a peace deal – is among those who have since criticised Trump’s “dictator” comment.

A Downing Street spokesperson said on Wednesday: “The prime minister spoke to President Zelensky this evening and stressed the need for everyone to work together.

“The prime minister expressed his support for President Zelensky as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War Two.”

Kemi Badenoch, Conservative Party leader and leader of the opposition, said Zelensky is “not a dictator”, but added Trump “is right that Europe needs to pull its weight”:

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said Trump calling Zelensky a dictator “must be where the line is drawn”:

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelensky’s democratic legitimacy”:

It’s also worth noting that even Zelensky’s opposition in Ukraine – who obviously would, in normal circumstances, benefit from a fresh chance to enter government via an election – has backed the president, with Lesia Vasylenko of the political party Holos telling Channel 4 News that Zelensky (who is a member of the political party Servant of the People) is “a president of a free, democratic country which is fighting for its survival”.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

And as much as this is about who has commented on Trump’s remarks, people are also pointing out who hasn’t:

The fallout continues…

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