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Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens
US president warns Ukrainian leader he ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left’
Donald Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and warned that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left”, in a deepening rift between the two leaders.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the US President hit out at his Ukrainian counterpart hours after Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and disputed his $500bn bill for aid to Kyiv.
The bitter exchange comes after Trump upended decades of US policy by convening bilateral talks with Moscow on the Ukraine war without inviting Kyiv and blaming Zelenskyy for the 2022 Russian invasion.
In his most overt threat yet to end the war on terms favourable to Moscow, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
He added that Zelenskyy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won”.
Speaking in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy, who was sidelined this week from high-profile talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh over the conflict, blasted Trump for pushing “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia”.
“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly . . . is living in this disinformation bubble,” he said.
He made his comments as Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the US-Russian rapprochement and argued that European leaders had excluded themselves from the talks.
Zelenskyy’s retort was prompted by Trump’s remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, in which the US president falsely claimed Kyiv had started the conflict, the largest on European soil since the second world war.
Trump added he was “very disappointed” that Ukraine was “upset about not having a seat” at Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia.
“Today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited’,” the US president said. “Well, you’ve been there for three years . . . you should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after the US and Russia agreed to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation” on ending the war, in their first high-profile talks since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Amid a dramatic reversal of decades of US policy towards Russia, Trump last week announced that he had spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war, without consulting Kyiv or its European allies.
In his first comments since his conversation with Trump, Putin said he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”.
“The US negotiators were totally different — they were open to a negotiating process without any biases or judgments about what was done in the past,” he said. “They intend to work together.”
Putin said Russia would not “speculate” on US-European relations, but claimed EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and said “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.
Putin said he would meet Trump “with pleasure” but that any summit required substantial preparation.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that elections should be held in Ukraine, after the US president claimed that his Ukrainian counterpart had an approval rating of just 4 per cent.
Pointing to polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which in February found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their president, Zelenskyy said: “So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work.”
Putin has long sought regime change in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president also disputed Trump’s claim that Ukraine owed the US $500bn worth of rare minerals and other resources for past military assistance.
Kyiv has spent $320bn on its war efforts against Russia, with $200bn coming from international military assistance, Zelenskyy said.
“The United States has contributed approximately $60bn so far, with an additional $31.5 billion in financial assistance,” he said. “That’s $67bn in weaponry and $31.5bn in direct budgetary support.”
US state department data broadly supports Zelenskyy’s figure for US military support for Ukraine.
This is disgusting… It’s not even subtle how they’re trying to change reality. If you weren’t afraid before, this is terrifying.
Next we’ll be putting boots on the ground to “liberate Ukraine from Zelensky’s tyranny…”
Jesus fuck that’s scary. I thought we europeans would need to fend of Russia in the near future. Now it might be the USA as well.
I quite sincerely believe that the long term goal is for the US to formally ally with Russia in a war against the EU.
I’m not kidding.
WW3 is probably going to be US/Russia/China vs Europe/Canada/Mexico/Japan?
I’m not so sure China will be on their side.
They’re kinda backing Russia already materially and supporting the Trump culture war
They’re playing the long game and having everyone else destroy themselves so that they can swoop in afterward. Much like how the US did after WWII when most of the world was rebuilding.
If they were, there wouldn’t be a real war
China is going to sit on the sidelines and swoop in suddenly to “win” the war, just like the US did in both World Wars previously. Being the only country not rebuilding is an attractive position to be in when vying for economic dominance.
I wonder if the geographical proximity to Russia will allow China to do that? American was able to sit it out because of, you know, oceans.
I’m not entirely sure if geographical proximity is even relevant any more in a world where spaceflight exists.
Chinas economy is crumbling as the youngest generation refuses to start after a historic flood season. Considering the new tariffs which eliminates Chinas ‘cheap labor’ sales tactic, China is expected to struggle throughout trumps presidency.
America is so split, I think we’d see a red America (allied with Russia and/or China) and a blue America (allied with Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia) fighting itself. There would be defections, sabotage, and theft of all American military stuff.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I would hope there’s enough good people in the military or former military with connections that would fight any alliance with Russia.
The only ppl who believe that are engaging in radical politics. That’s you! Even in the most blue state, there are red areas. Even in California, there are red counties. America is not so divided that red voters in New York would love to Russia. If you think it is that divided, then maybe you are part of the people creating the division.
Nah man. I agree with you.
I’m only saying hypothetically, if America were to ally and there was no way to come to a unified decision internally then you would likely see a division. I’m not saying that I think it would literally happen at all. I really don’t think it would. I’m an American in my 40s and Russia has always been the big bad boogie man you don’t want to become.
You clearly aren’t Mexican if you think Mexico would join forces with Canada before America lol
Would we be considered “an ally” is Putin is running both countries? We be more like a satellite office of the Russian empire.
I can tell you don’t work for the government because only someone uninformed would legitimately think there are enough Russians on earth to overtake 330 million Americans.
I can tell you don’t follow politics or the news if you think they need to “overtake” us when the elected president is capitulating to their every desire while half the voting population cheers it on.
What desires are being capitulated? I legitimately don’t know any American who is a ‘fan of Russia’ but I can’t even say what Russia wants, much less find it in the current movements. Can you list a top 5 list of wants that’s more detailed than ‘overtake __, rule ___.’ It looks like Trump is doing what he wants and playing sales games.
I somewhat believe that there won’t be a U.S. if that begins to happen. At some point, the states themselves will have to do something drastic for their own sake rather than let that idiot do something so inconceivably bad as starting a global conflict.
Maybe it’s unfounded optimism, but I feel like the United States would self-immolate before a war against the EU could take off.
Willing to put your money where your mouth is? Texas would have broken off decades ago if it was a feasible idea.
I’m with Adderbox on this. I think there are too many people within the gov or military that would not just up and join Russia. There would be dissent and sabotage, perhaps even a civil war here before America would just straight up join Russia.
America looks divided on the global stage but I’ve never met an American IRL who vocalized a want to become Russian. It’s a ‘Russian mail order bride’ because Americans don’t want to be Russian.
Has there ever been Time in history when the European block showed a majority favoritism towards America?? I’ve never known a Europe that didn’t hate America. What’s new?!?
You 100% will. Maybe not directly, but get ready.
bad news, truly, this is what i believe from all evidence i’ve seen, most european nations have no standing armies, and no conventional weapons stockpiles, only uk and france have nukes. europe will begin to cauterize ukraine soon in order to concentrate on their own borders, but their defense spending has been so low, for so long, they couldn’t offer a token defense to the russians (not even mentioning the americans) in 10 years, and that’s if they started diverting enourmous parts of their gdp currrently going to social services like health care, yesterday
most european nations have no standing armies, and no conventional weapons stockpiles
Wherever you’re getting your information from, you should probably look elsewhere.
Honey, America doesn’t have battle tanks because they are outdated. Carrying ppl into war via vehicles is some 1940s war behavior. Modern war is focused on subs, planes, and targeted missiles. Less waste, less civilian death, more precise. Unlike Europe, America has enough war experience to learn what works best. America is sending their outdated handmidown tanks, not a B83.
Honey, you’re a one hour old account with nothing but horribly bad takes on everything.
Good luck
😭
I think you are overestimating Russia. Sure Ukraine has US support, but it’s still a fraction of what fighting all of NATO (minus the US) would look like.
I’m more worried about economic and propaganda warfare. For instance, y’all need to regulate the shit out of engagement-driven, commercial social media before it’s too late.
I hope most Europeans don’t think like this because it would take long at all for America to decimate Europe. There are several simulations across decades to plan for these scenarios. Who would stop America? Not India, China or Russia (assuming Russia follows history and doesn’t unite with Europe). Canada could try but they are one of the weakest countries in the planet nearly totally dependent on America with 3/4 of Canadian exports being bought by Americans. America has played nice for decades and I guess everyone forgot why America keeps getting involved in wars; because we tend to win wars.
ok. best of luck with that. i don’t think i’m overstimating russia, or understimated european capability, and more importantly european resolve.
Yes you are.
I ninja edited, but the point I am trying to make is that if you focus on physical military defense, the US and Russia are going to destroy you in the economic, cyber, and most critically, public opinion space. Demagogues will brainwash everyone without a single shot fired, as they are already doing.
Public opinion? Whose? Europe’s, who look down on rampant American capitalism and Trump? Africa’s, who have just been screwed by Trump and Musk? The Middle-East, who have been screwed by America for decades? Asia, who are waiting to hear what China says?
With the ego of the average European, I don’t think Europe could ever lose in the court of public opinion. Too white, too much history, too much wealth. Maybe if South America can come up properly or South Africa continues to be a destination, but America is predisposed to be a public opinion loser after decades of controlling western media, being the global police, and providing rights to people when other countries refused to provide those rights. While all of those things are beneficial and can be good, Europe is fundamentally not the leader of global freedom. They are the leader of Western culture, not freedom. Western culture is very popular but freedom isn’t always popular.
If that were true then what have EU countries been sending to Ukraine this entire time? IOUs?
Exactly
I’m sorry, but that’s absolutely patently false information.
https://www.worldatlas.com/society/the-largest-standing-armies-of-the-european-union.html
Top 10 Largest Standing Militaries Of The European Union
Rank Country Army Size 1 Italy 338,000 2 France 304,000 3 Spain 199,000 4 Poland 189,000 5 Germany 183,000 6 Greece 147,000 7 Romania 128,000 8 Portugal 52,000 9 Hungary 46,000 10 Netherlands 41,000 (Yes, I may be showing off that I learned how to make tables today).
Trump can act this brash because Europe is nearly defenseless. Just considering the land mass and population sizes, there is no competition. But then consider that Europe isn’t as coordinated as America, there is room for reduced performance in war. But the biggest factor is that Europe has no defense money. They have relied on America to save them for over a century and the consequences are: Europe can’t intervene with them Trump Putin talks because they didn’t earn a seat at the table.
That wouldn’t surprise me. Trump is without doubt serving Russian interests. Next, Trump will try to pull the US out of NATO, after that he’ll push for an amendment to scrapping the maximum of two presidential terms. US democracy is being rapidly dismantled along with the West.
Well it was the same narrative bs with the WMD in 2003 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
They have precious minerals they aren’t willing to give us. We’ve done something similar for oil, so your scenario seems realistic.
If you are referring to Iraq, not selling oil to the US wasn’t their big sin; it was trying to establish international oil trading in a currency other than USD.
If this is terrifying you, get therapy.
Fix your fucking country, Americans. I’m legit getting a nervous eye twitch from reading the news these days.
It is just getting started. You have not seen anything yet. We have if we are lucky 3 years more of this. If unlucky this is how it will be going forward.
If we are lucky this is only how bad it will be. I strongly suspect it is going to get much worse before it gets better.
The outright corruption and country-killing isn’t really having that much impact yet, but it will. And just wait for the global economic crisis.
However, if things get bad enough there’s a better chance of people rising up and things changing for the better. Or if things stay sane enough somehow, the midterm elections changing everything.
I’m sorry but there isn’t going to be a big moment any time soon unless he tries to stop the 2026 elections or does something like declaring martial law. There’s a good possibility there will be 4 more years of this.
He probably won’t stop the elections, he’ll just “putinize” them further.
Yup and we have to be ready. We can use the filibuster to prevent anything binding.
No we can’t. Nor unless republicans stop universally falling in line.
Did I miss an election that gave the Republicans 60 votes in the Senate?
They can kill the filibuster at any time.
Also this is assuming that anything Congress does will mean anythibg.
I think Trump will try to amend the 22nd Amendment and he will become dictator of the US.
Good luck? He needs
7566 votes in the Senate just to start.Edit - I hate fractions. It’s mutual.
Do not count on that. Him and his fellow traitors are capable to things you can’t even imagine.
I don’t know, I’ve studied coups and I have a pretty active imagination. In fact I generally have to calm myself down. Which is part of why I know the minutia here.
The end run would be a Saddam Hussein moment, where he had members of his legislature arrested for treason while they were gathered for a speech by him. The particulars wouldn’t necessarily match but the idea would be to reduce the Senate to it’s quorum number and hold the vote then.
The problem with that course of action is 2/3 of the states must then also vote for it. And that’s not a realistic scenario. Especially if he tries to conduct mass arrests to affect the number of sitting legislators there too. Because at that point he’s lost all legitimacy and triggered massive protests or a civil war. At which point we refer to case G anyways. (The Go To Hell plan, when everything fails)
Note - it is 66 Senators, not 75. I hate fractions.
You are making way more assumptions about functioning government than recent trends would predict.
He’s consolidating all power in the executive. All bets are off on anything functioning the way it’s “supposed” to.
There’s a giant difference between hiring and firing in the civil service and declaring a new Constitutional Amendment without Congress or the States approving it.
A piece of paper means nothing if people with guns disregard it.
There’s more guns than people in this country. Picking up a gun to disregard paper is a very dangerous game.
He’s reinstating corrupt officials. He’s piling in sycophants into every corner of the government. He’s declaring he alone has the ability to interpret laws. He’s killing major federal departments. He’s ignoring policy. He’s ignoring court orders. He’s literally calling himself a king.
We are way, way beyond “firing civil servants”, and it is just going to get worse.
I don’t think he will amend the constitution. I think at the moment it doesn’t matter and it will be ignored. We are now actively in the greatest constitutional crisis in American history.
Understand that the shit has gotten very, very real. All this other stuff that we’ve counted on all our lives is gone unless something massive happens REALLY SOON.
at the rate the Senate’s spine is deteriorating i suspect it to slip by their scoliotic corpse within a couple years.
If that happens then yeah the country is cooked. But it’s not very likely.
Is that regardless of like 20% of democrats being assassinated? Could they get the numbers if enough of the no votes are eliminated?
If they outright kill legislators en masse then Trump better be heading to a bunker staffed by loyalists. Because he just blew the air horn to start a civil war, with exactly zero moral high ground or legitimacy.
They would simply blame Mexicans and DEI. Use it to garner more power. Who would be able to stop them, or prosecute in any meaningful way?
We would. That’s where the people have to step up. The military would. Political leaders not aligned with trump would.
I don’t think he’ll bother with amendments.
This is what around half of the voting public wants. I’m going to be doing what I can to try to fight against this (for as long as I remain anyway), but the rest of the world needs to plan as if the U.S. is an enemy state and an active threat. We should be given no benefit of the doubt. No trust. Assume the worst and then try and think about how it could be even worse and go with that.
as if the U.S. is an enemy state and an active threat
tell us what to do!! we tried voting and our educational system is so sabotaged that we do not know what else is possible
LOL
I’m not trying to be glib, but read this. You don’t fix big, systemic problems by working only within the system.
Get organized. Join local groups. Print flyers. Protest. It’s how people have been doing it for hundreds of years.
Please bomb us, we need punishment to learn anything
He said himself, it’s not a crime if you are saving America!
Bombing has historically not been the best way to change a country’s stance on anything really.
What? How about… Nazi Germany? Imperial Japan?
Bombing them didn’t really change the opinions of the Germans though. It just reinforced their stance on the “total war” and they kept going until they were obliterated. I guess a point could be made about Japan though.
On the Japan front, they were already fairly demoralized and the most important factor is simply that, while the US had nukes, no one else did. With mutually assured destruction, that’s off the table.
So the Germans kept their stance on Jews etc. post war?
That’s obviously not what I mean. I meant the act of bombing will not change anyone’s political orientation. Total destruction and occupation might. But that’s not what this thread is about.
No need to change political opinions if we’re all dead. We even color code the more evil states red for your convenience!
Great way to get your country and allies nuked, however.
ok so what do you suggest
Crank the organized protests up to 11 and be prepared to fight once the next election is cancelled.
Strikes. The only thing that works and is non violent. The rest is just reminders that the working class can stop working. Or reminders that one can do a Luigi.
armed uprising
You have guns, fucking use them
can you be more specific
I don’t see how any other single human being could have done a better job at leading and defending Ukraine these last 3 years than Zelensky has. The only reason Russia/Trump is pushing for elections is so Russia can interfe with them.
Plus, Elon’s really good with those vote counting computers. Maybe he can help.
Who was the one literally saying that when voting for them, that would be the last time the people would need to vote, implying the erection of a dictatorship?
P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N.
The government of the USA is horrifying.
It’s crazy to witness everything happening, in 10 years when the USA is best allies with Russia and they are invading all other countries and starting wars and the USA has no check and balances people will look back and ask why they didn’t do anything to stop it.
There were 2 people who tried
Thomas Matthew Crooks
Ryan Wesley Routh
If there was any shred of doubt as to which side of the Ukraine/Russia fence Trump belongs, there is now none. Trump is so far up Putin’s rear.
As an American, I am absolutely fucking mortified at (but honestly not surprised by) this development.
Didn’t he like dictators?
Yeah but not officially. Putin is a “strong leader” not a “dictator”
I thought Trump loves dictators.
Only Dicktators that have Putin’s smell.
I’m pissed at the american people.
Without getting into insults and earning a ban, they voted for this guy.
I feel the same way. But TBF I live in a country that voted for brexit. Essentially voted for sanctions against ourselves FFS, even though it should clearly have seemed like a horrible idea to everyone at the time. It’s not the same as electing an actual fascist but I’m just saying that Americans aren’t the only electorate that makes terrible decisions based on ignorance, xenophobia and misinformation.
That’s true. It is a human trait. But at the moment the ones making that mistake again are the Americans.
It it was unprecedented, would it be more or less forgivable? I don’t know really.
I’m right there with you and I live here. It boggles my mind that people voted for him and people stayed home.
The leadership on the left is terrible, and there is so much money and propagandizing on the right, it is insane.
They know who and how to target political messaging in a way that that was unheard of 20 years ago.
Even now, there are smart intelligent people that are like, “He seems to be making a difference.” Holy fucking shit!
And then they get mad when I ask them how. They always have bullshit propaganda points that were spoon fed to them and zero, actual understanding of the issues.
Mm it makes me very angry and sad to see peoples response to this. I feel like in Europe at least more and more people are becoming aware that it is not in fact just “the art of the deal”, but serious. Still a lot of careful rethoric thrown around and a lot of people refuse accepting the situation (fascists in the white house) but it is getting better. I have no idea how it is in the US tho except for some news articles which don’t tell me shit about what people think…
I didn’t.
This is more creepy and unsettling than anything i have ever witnessed before in the “world news” … and i’ve been around for a while.
Agreed.
The “Day One” Dictator who idolizes Hitler, Pooh Bear, and Putin says what?
Everything out of his mouth is projection or a lie. Or both.
What a cunt.
Naah, cunts are warm, deep and desirable
