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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday advised Ukraine to hold its elections to potentially remove Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump claimed that Zelenskyy “4% approval rating” — despite polls showing the Ukrainian president hovering just above 50%.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago after his US delegation finished talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia.
“That’s not a Russia thing,” Trump said of wanting elections in Ukraine. “That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also, you know, Ukraine is being just wiped out.”
Presidential elections in Ukraine were scheduled for April 2024, but were not held following martial law in the country after Russia launched the largest invasion since World War II in February of 2022.
Zelenskyy, in 2023, claimed that an election would further lead to a political divide at a time when the country should be focused on defense.
Trump's remarks on Zelenskyy came as the US delegation met Russian officials to push for peace talks in a four-and-a-half hour meeting in the Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said that the he was "surprised" that no Ukrainians were invited despite suffering through a nearly three-year-long war with Russia.
“I would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election,” Trump responded to Ukraine.
Earlier, Zelenskyy had blasted Russia for wanting to impose e new elections in Ukraine as a part of a potential peace plan and said that he would not settle for “ultimatums” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, Trump had a telephonic exchange with Russian President Putin.
Following the exchange, Trump said he “likes” Zelensky “personally,” but he doesn’t “care about personally.”
“I care about getting the job done. You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened,” Trump said, never mentioning Russia’s role in launching the invasion.
Trump also criticised Zelenskyy for misplacing funds the US has been giving Ukraine throughout the war.
“Where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? And nobody, I’ve never seen an accounting of it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars. I don’t see any accounting. So I want to see peace,” Trump said.
Trump also claimed Ukraine was the country that “started” the war with Russia, despite Moscow launching missiles into Ukraine.
