It looked like things couldnโt get any darker for Ukraine. Then President Donald Trump spoke up.
After cutting President Volodymyr Zelensky out of the first US talks with Russia on ending the war, Trump on Tuesday falsely accused Ukraine of starting a conflict that has ravaged its land and killed thousands of its people.
And in his most hostile comments toward the Ukrainian leader yet, Trump voiced yet another of President Vladimir Putinโs talking points โ that it was time for an election in Ukraine โ in an apparent bid to begin the process of pushing Zelensky aside.
The US presidentโs comments will fuel fresh fears in Europe, which was also excluded from the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, that Trump will try to impose a peace deal in Ukraine that favors his friend in the Kremlin.
His remarks also appeared to directly contradict assurances by his own Secretary of State Marco Rubio after meeting the Russian delegation that any eventual peace agreement would be fair to all parties.
And Trumpโs attack on Zelensky, who was hailed as a hero in the United States for resisting Russiaโs Blitzkrieg on Kyiv early in the war, was a graphic sign of how the new American administration has reversed Washingtonโs stance of supporting the victim of the invasion and is now rewarding the aggressor.
โWe have a situation where we havenโt had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law,โ Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump also claimed that Zelenskyโs approval rating was โat 4%โ and โwe have a country that has been blown to smithereens.โ
Reliable polling has been difficult in the middle of a war zone that has seen thousands of Ukrainians become internally displaced or flee the country. While recent surveys have shown Zelenskyโs popularity dropping significantly from the almost universal approval he enjoyed at the start of the war, itโs nowhere near the depths cited by Trump.
The president also warned that for Ukraineโs views on its fate to be considered, it should have an election, saying: โYou know, they want a seat at the table, wouldnโt the people of Ukraine have to have a say, like itโs been a lot of times since weโve had an election?โ
Apparently sensitive to criticism that he parrots Russian propaganda in his statements on the war, Trump insisted, โThatโs not a Russia thing; thatโs something thatโs coming from me.โ
Ukraineโs last election was due to have taken place last April, but Zelensky said it wasnโt possible for voters to go to the polls in wartime โ a position that is backed up by the countryโs Constitution. Trumpโs insistence on voters having their say in a democracy is ironic given his own refusal to listen to the verdict of Americans in the 2020 presidential election that he lost. And itโs even more brazen since Putin has stayed in power for over two decades by holding sham elections and imposing severe domestic repression. (CNN)