Zelensky lashes out at Donald Trump as US-Russia agree to explore ‘economic opportunities’ of ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump’s sensational claim that Ukraine started the war with Russia has ignited an epic war of words between Kyiv and Washington as tensions grow over US policy.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has fired back at Donald Trump after he claimed Ukraine started the war with Russia, accusing the US president of spreading “disinformation”.
Mr Trump made the controversial claim following talks between US and Russian diplomats on Tuesday, where officials negotiated for nearly five hours on how to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelensky rebuked that Kyiv was shut out of the talks, which sparked Mr Trump’s tirade.
“Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited. Well, you been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,” he said.
On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky hit back in what is shaping up to be far the most public exchange of accusations between Kyiv and Washington since the full-scale war started nearly three years ago.
“Unfortunately, President Trump – I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us – unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” he said.
As a result of the high-level meeting, US and Russian officials agreed to appoint high-level teams to negotiate the end of the war and said they were working to reestablish diplomatic channels.
Russian president Vladimir Putin rated the US-Russia talks “highly” and said it was a “first step” in restoring relations between the two countries.
“It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,” Putin said in a televised meeting with journalists in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday.
Mr Trump’s claim that Ukraine started the war has long been repeated by the Kremlin and its supporters.
The conflict started in 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula, and started sponsoring pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, attacking its smaller neighbour at night, sending tanks across the border, bombing Ukrainian cities and sending special forces into Kyiv to assassinate Mr Zelensky.
US-RUSSIA EXPLORE ‘ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES’ OF ENDING WAR
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was aiming for a “fair” and “sustainable” solution to the Ukraine war, after a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Riyadh.
It comes as Donald Trump said he would “probably” be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of month.
In remarks to reporters after the Saudi-hosted meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Rubio said that “the goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved”.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement that the two top diplomats had agreed to “appoint respective high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible”.Rubio said that European nations would have to be involved in talks on ending the war, and that “extraordinary opportunities existed to partner” with Russia.
“The key to unlock that is the end to this conflict,” he said.
Bruce billed the meeting as “an important step forward” towards peace.
Rubio and Lavrov agreed to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine”, the spokeswoman said.
Rubio said he was “convinced” that Moscow was willing to engage in a “serious process” to end the war.
With European governments worried about being excluded from talks on the Ukraine conflict, Rubio spoke with foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union foreign affairs chief after the meeting, the ministry said, without giving details of the discussions.
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said the negotiations will focus on territory and security guarantees.
“This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past,” Waltz said.
“There is going to be some discussion of territory and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees.”
This was the first high-level meeting between the countries since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russia said the negotiations, which went for nearly five hours, were “not bad” but it was difficult to tell whether Washington’s and Moscow’s positions were converging.
“It’s hard to say that they are getting closer, but we have been talking about it,” Kremlin aide and Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov said.
“There was a very serious conversation on all the issues we wanted to touch on.”
It was still not possible to talk about a date for a presidential summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, he added.
Moscow’s foreign minister also told the US that it opposed any NATO member sending troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire.
“The appearance of troops of armed forces from the same NATO countries, whether under a foreign flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags, does not change anything in this respect. This is unacceptable to us, of course,” Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, Zelensky postponed Wednesday’s trip to Saudi Arabia as he rebuked being kept out of the US-Russia talks and called for “fair” negotiations.
FRANCE CONSIDERING TROOPS OUTSIDE UKRAINE CONFLICT ZONE
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will host another meeting on Ukraine after the talks between the new US administration and Russia, adding that Donald Trump “can restart a useful dialogue” with Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with French regional newspapers, Macron again appeared open to the idea of sending troops to Ukraine but emphasised this could take place only in the most limited fashion and away from conflict zones.
Mr Trump is “recreating strategic ambiguity for President Putin” by using “very firm words” and creating “uncertainty” that “can help to exert pressure”, Mr Macron said.
The French president, who once spoke regularly to Mr Putin but has held no talks with him since 2022, added that he himself is ready to speak to his Russian counterpart “when it is appropriate in the cycle of upcoming negotiations”.
He said Paris was not “preparing to send ground troops, which are belligerent to the conflict, to the front” in Ukraine.
But France was considering, with its ally Britain, sending “experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone”.
Such a move would “boost the Ukrainians and show a solidarity. This is what we are thinking about with the British,” he said.
.
– with Agence France-Presse (AFP)
More Coverage
Originally published as Zelensky lashes out at Donald Trump as US-Russia agree to explore ‘economic opportunities’ of ending Ukraine war