Trump slams Zelensky for saying the end of Russia’s war on Ukraine ‘is still very, very far away’
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KYIV, Ukraine — President Trump slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday for suggesting that the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine is still likely “very, very far away.”
The comments come as prominent Trump allies escalate pressure on Zelensky to dramatically change his approach to the U.S. president, who has made quickly ending the war a top priority, or step aside.
The long complicated relationship between the leaders has reached a nadir following a disastrous White House meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance excoriated Zelensky for not being sufficiently thankful for U.S. support for Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion of the country.
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform about comments from Zelensky made late Sunday.
Trump took issue with Zelensky suggesting it would take time to come to an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, while trying to offer a positive take on the U.S.-Ukraine relationship in the aftermath of the White House meeting.
Asked by a reporter about the outlines of a new European initiative to end Russia’s war, Zelensky said: “We are talking about the first steps today, and, therefore, until they are on paper, I would not like to talk about them in great detail.”
“An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet,” he added.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an ungrateful ally risking global war in its ongoing defense against Russia.
But Trump was only further irritated by Zelensky’s suggesting it will take time for the conflict to come to a close.
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. — Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” Trump added in his post. “What are they thinking?”
Zelensky took to social media soon after Trump’s latest criticism. He did not directly refer to Trump’s comments, but underscored that it “is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible.”
“We need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns,” Zelensky added. “We lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.”
Meanwhile on Monday in Paris, France’s prime minister tore into Trump’s Oval Office thrashing of Zelensky, calling it a staggering show of “brutality” that aimed to humiliate Ukraine’s leader and bend him to the will of Putin.
The extraordinarily frank criticism from Prime Minister François Bayrou, speaking in a parliamentary debate on Ukraine, diverged from the more nuanced tone that French President Emmanuel Macron has adopted in the wake of the clash at the White House on Friday and dropped the diplomatic niceties that customarily mark French-U.S. relations.
“On Friday night, in the Oval Office of the White House, a staggering scene unfurled before the lenses of the entire world, marked by brutality, a desire to humiliate, with the goal of making Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fold through threats, so that he gives in to the demands of his aggressors,” Bayrou said.
The comments were a staggering back-and-forth between leaders of two countries that have been staunch allies in recent years under Trump’s predecessor.
“All this was summed up in one phrase before the planet’s cameras: ‘Either you find a deal with Putin or we will abandon you,’” Bayrou said, apparently referring to Trump’s comments in the Oval Office. Trump’s actual words to Zelensky were “you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.”
Continuing his speech to France’s parliament, Bayrou added: “For the honor of democratic responsibility, for the honor of Ukraine and, I dare say, for the honor of Europe, President Zelensky did not fold and I think we can show him our appreciation.”
Lawmakers got to their feet in the National Assembly chamber to applaud.
Bayrou’s grim outlook for Europe
In opening the parliamentary debate, Bayrou said that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its diplomatic fallout have left Europe in grave peril. He spoke of “an historic situation that in our eyes is the most serious, the most destabilized, the most dangerous of all those that our country and our continent have experienced since the end of World War II.”
The French prime minister said that the Oval Office scene — where Zelensky was berated both by Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance before being asked to leave the White House — left “two victims.”
The first, Bayrou said, was Ukraine’s security.
The second was both the trans-Atlantic relationship with traditional American allies and Washington’s image, he said. Bayrou said that the Oval Office scene “compromised another fundamental alliance: the one that the United States had with themselves, their history, and with a certain ideal of defending the law, of defending the weak against the forces of tyranny.”
Bayrou has been Macron’s prime minister since December. Although Bayrou doesn’t speak directly for the presidency, the veteran French politician has long been a crucial partner for Macron. In opening his address to parliament, Bayrou said that he was speaking for Macron’s government.
Trump’s national security advisor said Zelensky’s posture during Friday’s Oval Office talks “put up in the air” whether he’s someone the U.S. administration will be able to deal with going forward.
“Is he ready, personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?” Mike Waltz said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” earlier Monday. “And can he and will he make the compromises necessary?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had traveled to Washington to sign a deal that would give the U.S. access to its mineral riches.
Waltz added another layer of doubt about U.S. support as other high-profile Trump allies have suggested that the relationship between Trump and Zelensky is becoming untenable.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that Zelensky “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country” for Ukraine to continue pursuing a peace deal negotiated by the United States.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has been a vociferous supporter of Ukraine, said soon after the Oval Office meeting that Zelensky “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, said Putin is likely in no rush to end the war amid the fissures between Trump and Zelensky and Europe and the U.S. about the way ahead.
“He is not interested in ending the war,” said Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “He thinks Russia is winning. ... And he thinks that as time goes on, the West will be more fractured.”
Novikov, Turnbull and Leicester write for the Associated Press. Leicester reported from Le Pecq. AP journalists Geir Moulson in Berlin and Tracy Brown contributed to this report.
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