LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump is in a “disinformation space” as public recriminations between the two leaders deepened on Wednesday amid nascent talks to end Russia’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
The series of attacks, Zelenskyy suggested, were informed in part by “disinformation,” which the Ukrainian president said “comes from Russia — and we have evidence.”
Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” claiming — without providing evidence — that his Ukrainian counterpart’s approval rating was as low as 4%. Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Trump’s apparent push for new elections in Ukraine aligns with longstanding Kremlin talking points framing Zelenskyy as an “illegitimate” leader unsuitable for peace talks.
Ukraine’s latest presidential election was scheduled to be held in 2024, but was postponed due to Russia’s war on the country. Ukraine’s constitution stipulates that elections cannot be held under martial law, which was introduced within hours of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to weaponize the delay to undermine Kyiv. “You can negotiate with anyone, but because of his illegitimacy, he has no right to sign anything,” Putin said of Zelenskyy in January.
The country’s parliament and its speaker “remain the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine,” Putin declared in May 2024, the month that was supposed to mark the end of Zelenskyy’s term.
Trump’s broadside against Zelenskyy included a call for new elections, despite the ongoing war. “That’s not a Russia thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,” Trump said.
Dmitry Medvedev — Russia’s former president, prime minister and a longstanding top ally of Putin — was gleeful in his response to Trump’s most recent remarks.
“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud,” Medvedev — who is now the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council — wrote on X. Trump, he added, “is 200 percent right,” describing Zelenskyy as a “bankrupt clown.”
Russia’s ambassador to the U.K., Andrei Kelin, also celebrated the U.S. pivot. “For the first time we have noticed that they are not simply saying that this is Russian propaganda and disinformation,” he told the BBC.
“They have listened and they hear what we’re saying,” Kelin said.
Trump suggested this week that Ukraine’s long-time desire to join NATO was a major cause for Russia’s 2022 invasion. The assertion won him more praise in Russia.
“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told lawmakers.
Like Moscow, Trump and his domestic allies appear to be presenting Zelenskyy as a key impediment to peace.
Vice President JD Vance said the Ukrainian leader’s “badmouthing” of Trump was an “atrocious” way to interact with the administration.
“We obviously love the Ukrainian people,” he told the Daily Mail. “We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close.”
“That is the policy of the President of the United States,” Vance said. “It is not based on Russian disinformation. It’s based on the fact that Donald Trump, I think, knows a lot about geopolitics and has a very strong view, and has had a strong view for a very long time.”
Trump confidante Steve Bannon, meanwhile, told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper he believed Zelenskyy is “finished.”
“Of course, if he decides to accept the terms of the agreement with Russia, he will be welcome, but he no longer has the power to dictate them,” Bannon said.
Russian officials, meanwhile, also framed Kyiv as the key impediment to peace.
“The Ukrainian side is practically ready to use any tool that will be aimed at stopping or preventing dialogue and preventing the search for a scenario for a political and diplomatic settlement,” Rodion Miroshnik, an ambassador-at-large for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told state television on Thursday, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency.
Several of Kyiv’s European partners, meanwhile, expressed deep concern over the the latest developments.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “stressed the need for everyone to work together,” in a statement, expressing “his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader.” Starmer said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the U.K. did during World War II.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy democratic legitimacy.”
ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
