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.
