TRUMP says Ukraine needs to pull its finger out and “start accepting” that Russia has the upper hand in peace negotiations, as the US president ramps up efforts to bring peace to Europe.
In a furious tirade, Trump has demanded Zelensky “get his act together” to finally put an end to the bloody war between Moscow and Kyiv which has wreaked havoc for four years.
Trump even went as far as saying it was time for Ukraine to hold an election for a new president.
“They’re using the war as an excuse not to hold an election,” he said.
“But they haven’t had an election in a long time. They talk about a democracy, but at some point, it ceases to be one.”
President Zelensky said Ukraine and Europe were “very actively” working towards ending the war and that they were “ready to present” their parts of the peace deal to America.
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“Everything depends on whether Russia is ready to take effective steps to stop the bloodshed and prevent the war from reigniting,” Zelenksy said on X.
Trump also called out Ukraine’s European allies for “talking too much” and not “delivering” for the war-torn country.
The damning comments come from his latest diplomatic push to end the conflict, in which Trump told Politico the war would never have started if he was in office at the time.
“Frankly, it wouldn’t have happened if I had been president—and it didn’t happen during my four years in office,” he said.
“I think if I weren’t president, we would have had World War III.”
He went on to say that there was “no doubt” Russia was in a stronger negotiating position because it was a “much bigger country”.
Trump played down reports that he would walk away from Ukraine following comments made by his eldest son over the weekend, saying the claims weren’t “entirely wrong”.
“I want to lead the United States. I don’t want to lead Europe,” he said.
Yesterday, Zelensky was at 10 Downing Street to meet Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany on Monday, who rallied around him in the face of Trump’s shaky-looking support.
They gathered amid American efforts to hurry a peace deal over the line – which have reached a “critical stage”, according to Starmer.
After the US and Russia produced a 28-point peace deal last month, European leaders swiftly set to work crafting a more balanced counter proposal.
Talks have also been ongoing between the US and Ukraine in a bid to agree on a revised version – which was reportedly presented to Putin last week.
On Sunday, Trump accused Zelensky of not having even read the latest version of the text, which has been kept tightly under wraps, though Ukrainian officials denied this.
The President added that he viewed Zelensky as the main obstacle to securing a peace deal.
Trump said: “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”
After talks with Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, Zelensky confirmed they had been working on a further update to the 20-point proposal.
He said the revision could be ready for delivery to Trump as early as Tuesday evening.