Donald Trump calls Zelensky a ‘dictator without elections’ and blames Ukraine for the war

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being a ‘dictator’ and abusing billions in US support but reminded the Ukraine president he wasn’t working with the Biden administration any more.

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being a dictator. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator without elections”, saying the Ukrainian leader had done a “terrible job” and suggesting he was more interested in receiving billions of dollars in assistance than ending the war.

Taking the public brawl between both men to a new level, Mr Trump warned Mr Zelensky on Wednesday local time that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left” after the Ukrainian leader accused the US President of repeating Russian propaganda points and disinformation.

At a Saudi back tech conference in Miami, President Trump repeated many comments he had posted on Truth Social earlier in the day, calling Mr Zelensky a “dictator without elections”.

Claiming the Ukrainian President had poor polling numbers, he added: “How can you be up [in the polls] if every city is being demolished?”

Mr Trump said the Biden administration had been giving Ukraine money “hand over fist”, but stressed that Mr Zelensky was “not dealing with the same United States” now.

Earlier, on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said he was successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia and accused Mr Zelensky of trying to keep the “gravy train” going while misusing billions in assistance provided by America.

“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, 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,” Mr Trump said.

“The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation,” he said.

“On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is “MISSING.” 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.” A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

Mr Trump said that he was committed to “successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. 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,” Mr Trump said. “And so it continues.”

The previous day Mr Trump rebuked Mr Zelensky, questioned the legitimacy of his leadership and signalled that elections in the war-torn country could become part of talks with Moscow aimed at ending hostilities in eastern Europe.

Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine won’t accept any peace talks with Vladimir Putin unless he’s at the table.

After initial talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday local time, the US President appeared to accuse Kyiv of starting the conflict and refusing to strike a deal to end the three years of bloodshed.

European leaders immediately defended Mr Zelensky, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying Russia posed an “existential threat” to Europe.

“Do not think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst,” Mr Macron told reporters ahead of a video meeting with 19 European leaders.

British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch insisted Mr Zelensky was no dictator, posting on X: “President Zelenskyy is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion. Under my leadership, and under successive Conservative prime ministers, we have and always will stand with Ukraine”.

Europe and Ukraine were not included in the talks in Riyadh, after Mr Trump last week surprised allies by kickstarting the ­negotiations to end the war by holding a 90-minute phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had also alarmed European leaders after conceding that NATO membership for Ukraine or a ­return to the nation’s pre-2014 borders were unrealistic goals ­before talks had even started.

Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Charles Kupchan, told The Australian the call by Mr Trump for elections in Ukraine “simply doesn’t make any sense.”

“You don’t want to undermine Zelensky and weaken him just as you are launching negotiations. You don’t want to give Putin a win … Under the right circumstances, does Ukraine need to hold an election? Yes. But Ukraine is now under martial law and, under martial law, the fact that an election could not happen on schedule is completely understandable. A country that is getting the crap kicked out of it can’t hold an election,” he said. “When there is a ceasefire, when there is a sense of normalcy, when people have returned to their homes and can go to a polling station without fear they will get killed by a Russian drone, then, yes, it’s time for an election. But to talk about having an election now is craziness.”

Professor Kupchan - who served from 2014 to 2017 as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council in the Obama White House - told The Australian he did not think the US President should rush into any meeting with Mr Putin but instead needed to “forge an agreement with allies and most importantly with Ukraine because if Ukraine is not on board this agreement won’t stick.”

“Trump could then say, ‘if you don’t do what I tell you to do then we are going to just turn off the flow of aid. Well fine, turn the aid off. Then Ukraine collapses and Trump just lost Ukraine. I don’t see any negotiation strategy that doesn’t require the consent of the Ukrainians. Might there be strong-arming and tough conversations? Yes. But going over the heads of Kyiv and cutting a deal with the Russians that the Ukrainians can’t live with is not workable.”

Speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after the Riyadh talks had wrapped up, Mr Trump said he was focused on striking a deal to save “millions of lives” and that he would “probably” meet Putin next week.

“I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it’s going very well,” the President said.  “But today I heard, ‘oh, well, we weren’t invited’. Well, you’ve been there three years. You should have ended it (in) three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

He went on to throw his support behind fresh elections being called in Ukraine and questioned whether Mr Zelensky had the legitimacy to warrant a seat at the negotiating table.

While Putin has challenged the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leader’s hold on power, Mr Trump made clear he was also concerned about Mr Zelensky’s viability.

“Well, we have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law or essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine – I mean, I hate to say it but he’s down at (a) 4 per cent ­approval rating – and where a country has been blown to smithereens,” Mr Trump said.

“And, yeah, I would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, you could say, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, ‘it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election’.

“That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also.”

Volodymyr Zelensky says Donald Trump is trying to please Vladimir Putin because Washington wanted a ‘quick win’. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump questioned how all the money provided to Ukraine had been used.

“Where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? I’ve never seen an accounting of it,” he said. “We’ve given hundreds of billions of dollars.”

In Turkey where he opened a new embassy building in Ankara, Mr Zelensky lashed the Trump administration for sidelining Ukraine and Europe from the initial talks.

Scaling up his criticism of the White House, Mr Zelensky warned against the talks with Moscow replicating negotiations took place directly between the US and the Taliban as part of Mr Trump’s first-term bid to end the conflict in Afghanistan. The Taliban went on to retake power in 2021.

“I do not think that anybody is interested in Afghanistan 2.0,” he said.

Mr Zelensky also reaffirmed his conviction that any decisions to end the war could not be made without Ukrainian involvement and revealed that he had cancelled a planned trip to Riyadh where he had intended to talk with American officials.

He told German broadcaster ARD that America was now trying to please Putin because Washington wanted a “quick win”, but warned a ceasefire would not amount to a lasting success.

The talks in Riyadh were led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Mr Rubio was joined by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff, while Mr Lavrov was joined by the senior Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Mr Rubio later told CNN and the Associated Press that “no one is being sidelined here”, while Mr Waltz said it was “common sense” to talk to both sides.

“We’ll continue to push back on this notion that our allies haven’t been consulted,” Mr Waltz said. “They are being consulted ­literally almost on a daily basis.”

He said that Putin and Mr Trump had “talked about meeting and expect to meet”, while Mr Witkoff said talks in Riyadh were “positive, upbeat (and) constructive”.

Both parties agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to ­address “irritants” in the bilateral relationship; appoint respective high-level teams to help end the conflict “in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides”; and lay the groundwork for “future co-operation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest”.

This included both nations working together to realise new “historic economic and investment opportunities” arising from a successful end to the war.