This Writer is no particular fan of Ukraine’s president but Donald Trump’s trash-talk about Volodymyr Zelenskyy is full of falsehoods and cannot be taken seriously.
It seems the US president is upset because Ukraine did not allow his country access to rare-earth minerals because no security guarantees were offered in exchange.
On Tuesday, when US and Russian officials began to hold their peace talks over Ukraine – in the absence of representatives of that country because they weren’t invited – Trump blamed Ukraine for causing the war. He said: “You should never have started it. You could have made a deal.”
For information: the war began when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his own troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
In response, Zelenskyy [pictured] said: “We are seeing a lot of disinformation and it’s coming from Russia. With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in this disinformation space.”
Trump retaliated by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator”. He said: “He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls. How can you be high with every city being demolished?”
These words echoed a post on Trump’s own social network, Truth Social, which he created after being permanently banned from Twitter/X. In it, he said Zelensky “has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.”
For information: while it is true that Zelensky’s five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024, Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022 and elections are legitimately suspended.
Trump also attempted to make an issue out of Zelensky’s popularity, claiming the Ukrainian president had only a four per cent approval rating.
For information – well, here‘s BBC Verify:
Polling conducted this month found 57% of Ukrainians said they trusted the president.
Trump’s words have opened up a rift, not just with Zelenskyy’s Ukraine but with European leaders, who have backed the Ukrainian president – including the UK’s Keir Starmer.
A spokesperson for Starmer said he had made his support clear in a phone call to Zelenskyy. The spokesperson said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who disagreed with Starmer earlier this week over the possibility of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, said: “It is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy.”
And Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the comments “absurd”, adding: “If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus.”
Trump has already distanced himself from European leaders, saying in his Truth Social post on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine is “far more important to Europe than it is to us”.
For information: while this may be true, it seems Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals are quite important to the United States. Otherwise, why would Trump make such a fuss when he couldn’t get them?
Ultimately, though – and sadly, considering the tone of this week’s exchange of words – the United States has the whip hand.
Zelenskyy was due to meet the American envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, today (Thursday, February 20, 2025). He said it was crucial that the discussion – and overall co-operation with the US – remains constructive.
The operative word there is “co-operation”. Ukraine needs the United States.
But Trump is cosying up to Vladimir Putin. These are dangerous times.
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Trump’s trash-talk about Volodymyr Zelenskyy is full of falsehoods
This Writer is no particular fan of Ukraine’s president but Donald Trump’s trash-talk about Volodymyr Zelenskyy is full of falsehoods and cannot be taken seriously.
It seems the US president is upset because Ukraine did not allow his country access to rare-earth minerals because no security guarantees were offered in exchange.
On Tuesday, when US and Russian officials began to hold their peace talks over Ukraine – in the absence of representatives of that country because they weren’t invited – Trump blamed Ukraine for causing the war. He said: “You should never have started it. You could have made a deal.”
For information: the war began when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his own troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
In response, Zelenskyy [pictured] said: “We are seeing a lot of disinformation and it’s coming from Russia. With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in this disinformation space.”
Trump retaliated by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator”. He said: “He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls. How can you be high with every city being demolished?”
These words echoed a post on Trump’s own social network, Truth Social, which he created after being permanently banned from Twitter/X. In it, he said Zelensky “has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.”
For information: while it is true that Zelensky’s five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024, Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022 and elections are legitimately suspended.
Trump also attempted to make an issue out of Zelensky’s popularity, claiming the Ukrainian president had only a four per cent approval rating.
For information – well, here‘s BBC Verify:
Trump’s words have opened up a rift, not just with Zelenskyy’s Ukraine but with European leaders, who have backed the Ukrainian president – including the UK’s Keir Starmer.
A spokesperson for Starmer said he had made his support clear in a phone call to Zelenskyy. The spokesperson said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who disagreed with Starmer earlier this week over the possibility of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, said: “It is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy.”
And Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the comments “absurd”, adding: “If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus.”
Trump has already distanced himself from European leaders, saying in his Truth Social post on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine is “far more important to Europe than it is to us”.
For information: while this may be true, it seems Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals are quite important to the United States. Otherwise, why would Trump make such a fuss when he couldn’t get them?
Ultimately, though – and sadly, considering the tone of this week’s exchange of words – the United States has the whip hand.
Zelenskyy was due to meet the American envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, today (Thursday, February 20, 2025). He said it was crucial that the discussion – and overall co-operation with the US – remains constructive.
The operative word there is “co-operation”. Ukraine needs the United States.
But Trump is cosying up to Vladimir Putin. These are dangerous times.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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