‘Time isn’t on your side’: Trump team piles pressure on Zelensky

The White House has signalled the Ukrainian leader should resign if he doesn’t move quickly to sign the US rare minerals deal and agree a ceasefire, as Marco Rubio accuses him of ‘Ukraine-splaining’.

The Trump administration has signalled that President Zelensky should step down if he does not move quickly to sign the US deal on rare minerals and agree a ceasefire.

President Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said that Washington needed “a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians and end this war”.

“If it becomes apparent that President Zelensky’s either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in his country, then I think we have a real issue on our hands,” Waltz told CNN, stopping short of calling outright for his resignation.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, revealed that he had not spoken with Zelensky, or his Ukrainian counterpart, since the fiery exchange at the White House that upended days of European diplomacy to pave the way for constructive bilateral talks.

Rubio accused Zelensky of disrupting Trump’s efforts to forge an agreement and said the administration took issue with the Ukrainian leader’s attempt to find “every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue.”

US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd R) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meet on the sidelines of the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich on February 14. Picture: AFP.

The comments reveal how far Washington’s position has shifted under Trump. Rubio and Waltz had previously been defenders of Ukraine and Zelensky.

Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, echoed their sentiment, saying: “Something has to change – either he [Zelensky] needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that.”

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, accused Zelensky of claiming “to be standing and fighting for the cause of freedom and democracy when the reality was the exact opposite”. Gabbard, who has shared views sympathetic to Russia in the past, asked: “What are they [Ukrainians] actually really fighting for, and are they aligned with the values that President Trump and vice-president Vance are standing for, and those are the values of freedom, of peace and true security.”

Elon Musk said on X: “Zelensky damaged himself severely in the eyes of the public. Just a fact.”

Waltz warned Zelensky yesterday that “time is not on your side on the battlefield. Time is not on your side in terms of the world situation and most importantly, US aid and the taxpayers’ tolerance is not unlimited.”

After Friday’s spectacle in the Oval Office, US officials told The New York Times that Trump might decide to end indirect support, which includes other types of military financing, intelligence sharing and training.

Protests were held in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Boston, where thousands gathered to show their solidarity with Kyiv.

JD Vance was forced to change his family holiday plans after his motorcade was blocked by pro-Ukraine protesters. The demonstrators carried signs along the route into the Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont, over the weekend, accusing Vance of being a “traitor”, “Putin’s puppet” and telling him to “go ski in Russia”. Vance did not comment, but moved his wife, Usha, and their three young children to an unknown location.

The Oval Office meltdown drew few criticisms from Republicans.

A rare rebuke came from Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator for Alaska, who wrote on X: “I am sick to my stomach as the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and US values around the world.”

The Times