Zelenskyy: Trump is trapped in Russian 'disinformation' bubble
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded Wednesday to President Donald Trump's accusation overnight that Ukraine started its war with Russia, saying that Trump is trapped in a Russian “disinformation" bubble and adding that Ukraine was not for sale.
Zelenskyy said that American demands that Ukraine should hand more than $500 billion in minerals to the U.S. was “not a serious conversation." He spoke to reporters shortly before he was expected to meet with Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
The verbal sparring escalated between Trump and the ally whose efforts to defend itself American tax payers have helped support for several years when later Wednesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy is "a Dictator without Elections" and took credit for early steps to negotiate an end to the war.
U.S. officials and their Russian counterparts met in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss an end to the war after refusing to include Ukraine or other European countries in the talks.
The response followed Trump’s comments Tuesday that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s invasion of the country three years ago, a comment echoing Russian President Vladimir Putin's rhetoric. Trump also argued that Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the conflict or stop it in the time since.
Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort late Tuesday, Trump said he believed he had the power to end the war in Ukraine, "but today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years.”
“You should have never started it," he added. "You could have made a deal.”
Trump's recent comments and willingness to negotiate with Russia without the presence of Ukrainian officials have flipped the United States' script on Putin and the Russian government, and has shocked Ukraine and its European allies.
Kellogg told reporters he is in Ukraine to hear Zelenskyy's concerns about the negotiations.
"Part of my mission is to sit and listen and say, “OK, what are your concerns?” Get the answers and go back to the United States, talk to President Trump, Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio and the rest of the team to just ensure that we get this one right," Kellogg said.
Popularity
Trump claimed that Zelenskyy's approval ratings sat at 4% in Ukraine — despite an opinion poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showing that 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy.
“We have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia,” Zelenskyy told reporters Wednesday, adding that Trump “lives in this disinformation space.”
Trump suggested that Zelenskyy would lose if he called for an election. Zelenskyy cancelled an election scheduled for spring 2024, saying it could not be held in the middle of an ongoing war and the consequent imposition of martial law, in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution.
Rubio's stance on negotiations
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other officials on Feb. 18 following Trump's conversation with Putin.
Rubio said after the meeting that Washington would appoint a high-level team to help work through the end of the conflict in Ukraine “in a way that’s enduring and acceptable to all of the parties engaged.”
He also said that both countries would “begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine.”
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