Trump calls Zelensky a
'dictator' as he hits back at
'disinformation' criticism
It comes after the Ukrainian president suggested Donald Trump was
"living in a disinformation space" created by Russia.
As Trump’s attacks on Zelensky turn personal, there’s only
one winner: Russia
Analysis by Nick
Paton Walsh, CNN
Published 3:03 PM EST, Wed February
19, 2025
KyivCNN —
The suspicion this
was personal always lingered. But there was hope the greater good of both the
US and Ukraine would win out.
The past 24 hours has seen US President Donald
Trump’s slow-burn, apparent dislike for his Ukrainian
counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, belch out into the open. And with it comes a
real and new uncertainty about the future of Ukraine, and more widely the
security of Europe.
Last week, Trump
hinted he felt Zelensky’s poll numbers were low and he would have to face
elections, but Tuesday night he dug deeper, falsely stating the wartime leader
was at 4 per cent favorability and Ukraine had started the war.
This is pretty close
to Kremlin talking points. Moscow has been at pains to incorrectly suggest
Ukraine’s imminent joining of NATO was behind its unprovoked attack in 2022,
and that Zelensky is illegitimate as Ukraine has not undertaken the immense
challenge of running elections in wartime.
Zelensky has for
months flattered Trump as one who can bring peace through strength. Kyiv knew
the Trump team’s rhetoric on the campaign trail spelt a likely sea change for
Ukraine, but held out hope, with European allies, that Trump would seek to
avoid an Kabul Airport Moment of collapse in security on the continent, and
keep Russia back.
In the background,
lingered the risk their contentious relationship in Trump’s first term – when
Zelensky didn’t give Trump what he wanted in a “perfect” phone call that led to
impeachment – was a dark, inescapable cloud that would hang over their future
interactions. Now that cloud has loudly broken and Ukraine is getting wet
Zelensky has tempered his remarks about Trump living in a “disinformation
space” by adding he has great respect for this US president and the
American people. But Trump sought no such caveats, even adding the “dictator”
needed to move fast to save Ukraine and was on a “gravy train.”
Twice in five days
this White House has dubbed European democratic leaders tyrants, falsely, while
declining to mention the Kremlin’s authoritarian record in the same speech. US
Vice President JD Vance at the weekend in Munich said Europe’s most democratic
US allies were afraid of their voters. Now Trump says Russia’s greatest
adversary is himself a “dictator” on the make. Putin’s army of propagandists
are being outwritten on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The existential dilemma now for Ukraine is whether it even has the luxury of choice between its wartime president and its main military backer, the United States. Is enough left intact of either?
Zelensky is now the subject of withering posts by the world’s most powerful man, who is parroting a regular supply of Kremlin talking points stemming from somewhere yet unknown, altering the course of the largest war in Europe since the 1940s.
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