The U.S. special envoy to Ukraine is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a grim series of statements that show the White House is siding more with the Kremlin than Kyiv.
President Donald Trump spoke out against Zelensky again on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he accused the Ukrainian leader of “starting” the invasion of his own country.
“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 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 U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning. “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’”
Trump called Zelensky “a dictator without elections” who “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”
“In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” Trump continued. “Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died — And so it continues.”
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, and the former Russian president, later posted on X: “If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud. Donald Trump is 200 percent right. Bankrupt clown…”
Special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg is now in Kyiv, attempting to smooth things over and ease the nation’s concerns.
“We understand the need for security guarantees,” Kellogg told Ukrainian news outlet Suspilne. “Part of my mission is to sit and listen and say: ‘What are your concerns?’”
Zelensky said Monday that he plans to take Kellogg to the front lines during his visit.
“He will be in Ukraine for two days, maybe more,” the Ukrainian president said. “I want to invite him to visit the front line with me. I don’t think he’ll say no.”
“He will visit [Ukrainian Army Chief Commander Gen. Oleksandr] Syrskyi, maybe the brigades’ commanders … military intelligence,” he continued. “We will talk about security guarantees in detail, as it is important. After his visit and return to the U.S., we will understand when will we meet with President Trump.”
Trump slammed Zelensky on Tuesday after the Ukrainian leader expressed discontent with the U.S. holding bilateral talks with Russia about a possible ceasefire without Ukraine’s involvement.
“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today, I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it — three years,” Trump said during a late Tuesday press conference. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
The war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022 after the Russian military launched a full-scale invasion of the country without warning or provocation.
Zelensky accused Trump of living in a “disinformation space” created by Russian leadership and said he “would like Trump’s team to be more truthful” about the situation.
The sudden disdain for Zelensky is a surprise from Trump, who has thus far played both sides of the conflict and avoided aligning explicitly with either.
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The U.S. president accused Zelensky of being wildly unpopular with his own people, claiming he held only a 4% approval rating.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology claims that recent approval rating data from February show Zelensky’s current popularity rating is 57%.
