The deepening feud between the US and Ukrainian leaders has alarmed European officials.
Donald Trump has warned Volodymyr Zelensky that he needs to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote on social media.
BBC reports: Speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida, Trump said the only thing Zelensky “was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle”.
The “dictator” slur quickly prompted criticism from European leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said “it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelensky his democratic legitimacy”.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made it clear he backed Zelensky in a phone call to the Ukrainian president.
A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir “expressed his support for President Zelensky as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader”.
It was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two,” the spokesperson added.
Zelensky is due to meet the American envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, on Thursday. He said it was crucial that the discussion – and overall co-operation with the US – remains constructive.
In a social media post, Zelensky said that peace could be more secure with the US and Europe.
Zelensky’s five-year term of office was due to come to an end in May 2024. However, Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and elections are suspended.
Meanwhile Zelensky’s pal, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir, said he’s ready and willing to send British troops to Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal provided there was a US “backstop”.
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