President Donald Trump mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a poor negotiator and "grossly incompetent", Politico quoted him as saying.
The comments come amid criticism from European allies and many U.S. intelligence experts that Ukraine and European nations that have invested in Ukraine's defense were excluded from talks that began early Tuesday between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Claiming that the initial round of talks had gone "very well", Trump downplayed Zelensky's disappointment at being excluded from the Riyadh meeting.
"I heard today, "Amy, we weren't invited," Trump said when asked about the criticism from Ukraine, as if directly addressing Zelensky. "Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it - three years. You should never have been there. You should never have started it (the war). You should have made a deal."
The comment - which ignored the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine three years ago this month - was Trump's harshest condemnation of the Ukrainian side to date.
It comes as Zelensky and leaders across Europe struggle to respond to growing indications that Kiev's most critical ally of the past three years appears more interested in normalizing relations with Russia than in ensuring that Ukraine holds up, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces greater deterrence after starting the first land war on European soil since 1945. since.
Trump also reiterated his interest in forcing elections in Ukraine as part of any diplomatic resolution to the war.
"We have a situation where we haven't had an election in Ukraine, where we have martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine - I mean, I hate to say it, but he has a 4% approval rating - and the country is being torn apart," Trump said.
Although Zelensky's public approval rating has plummeted since the early days of the war, he still has the support of a narrow majority of Ukrainians. According to the results of a new survey conducted on February 4-9 by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, 57% of respondents trust President Zelensky, 37% do not trust him, while compared to December, the level of trust has only increased (then 52% trusted him, 39% did not trust him).
Trump also rejected the suggestion that forcing Zelensky to run for re-election is a Russian priority.
"This is not a Russian thing", Trump said. "This is something that comes from me and from many other countries as well."
The president also said that Ukrainians, who are fighting for the survival of their country, are "tired" of the death and destruction and eager to see the war end. "People want to see something happen."
That statement was at odds with the reality in Ukraine, where elected officials and much of the population were shocked by the actions of a Trump administration that seemed indifferent to the fate of the nation.