KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Donald Trump of succumbing to Russian “disinformation”, deepening a rift between Kyiv and the new US administration.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump echoed many of Russia’s talking points on the three-year war in Ukraine, blaming Kyiv for having “started” the fighting and suggesting Zelensky was hugely unpopular. Trump claimed his Ukrainian counterpart had a minimal approval rating in his country — despite polls showing otherwise.

Zelensky hit back, saying that “unfortunately, President Trump, for whom we have great respect as leader of the American people … lives in this disinformation space.” Zelensky’s comments highlighted a growing rift between Ukraine and the Trump administration, which sent officials to meet with Russian negotiators on Tuesday in a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that excluded Kyiv.

“I believe that the United States helped Putin to break out of years of isolation,” the Ukrainian leader added, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the new US administration.

Russia has revelled in Trump’s remarks, praising him on Wednesday as the “only Western leader” who understood that “dragging Ukraine into Nato” was a cause of the conflict. “He is a completely independent politician,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency on Wednesday.

Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday morning in what he said was a mission to “sit and listen” to Kyiv’s concerns, after Ukraine chided the US for not being included in the Russian talks.

Trump wants Ukraine election

Trump has upended US foreign policy since taking office last month, making statements that have alarmed even Washington’s closest allies. His diplomatic overtures towards the Kremlin have alarmed Ukraine, which fears it will be forced to make massive concessions to end the fighting.

In his press conference on Tuesday, Trump suggested that one such concession would be to hold new elections in Ukraine, one of Moscow’s demands for a peace deal.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election,” said Trump. “That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me, from other countries.” Zelensky was elected in 2019 for a five-year term, but has remained leader under martial law imposed following the Russian invasion. Trump also claimed the Ukrainian leader’s approval rating was “at four percent”.

Zelensky’s popularity has eroded since the war began, but the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50 percent since the invasion, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

A telephone poll of 1,000 people by the institute released on Wednesday found that 57pc of respondents trusted Zelensky, while 37pc said they did not and the rest were undecided. Borys Filatov, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, appeared to push back at Trump’s comments.

“We may or may not like Zelensky. We can scold him or we can praise him. We can condemn his actions or applaud them. Because he is OUR President,” he said.

“And not a single lying creature in Moscow, Washington, or anywhere else has the right to open their mouths against him.”

‘Useful dialogue’

Trump’s latest comments are unlikely to allay fears among some European leaders, already worried that Washington will make serious concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement in a Cold War-style deal.

Ukraine had been working on a deal to give the US access to vast amounts of Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for protection. But the deal fell through as Ukraine said the draft agreement lacked any security guarantees.

“I am defending Ukraine, I cannot sell our country. That’s all,” Zelensky said. In Paris, France’s President Emmanuel Macron was to host another meeting in Paris on Ukraine on Wednesday. In comments on Tuesday to the French media after the US-Russia talks, he suggested that Trump could restart “useful dialogue” with Putin.

Early on Wednesday, Russian strikes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa left tens of thousands of people without power, Zelensky said on social media. “At least 160,000 Odesa residents are now without heat and electricity,” he said.

For the past three years, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as well as its towns and villages. In Brussels, EU diplomats said member states had on Wednesday agreed a new round of sanctions against Russia. It will be formally adopted by EU foreign ministers on Monday, the third anniversary of Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2025