United States President Donald Trump denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy overnight as "a dictator without elections" and said if he doesn't move fast to secure peace he would have no country left.
Trump spoke hours after Zelenskyy hit back at his suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.
At a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and in comments on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump claimed Zelenskyy was a "dictator" blocking elections with a popularity rating sitting at just 4 per cent. He also said that Ukraine "started" the war with Russia and that the US contributed more aid to Ukraine than Europe.
SBS News has fact-checked Trump's claims:
Claim: Zelenskyy is a 'dictator' who is blocking elections
"He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden 'like a fiddle.' A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Elon Musk also took to X on Thursday to label Zelenskyy as a "dictator".
He wrote: “Zelenskyy cannot claim to represent the will of the people of Ukraine unless he restores freedom of the press and stops cancelling elections!"
Fact check: Ukrainian elections can't be held during a war
Zelenskyy's five-year term was supposed to end in 2024 but presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022 in response to Russia's full-scale invasion.
Zelenskyy is not opposed to elections in principle and said they should be held when the time is right.
"Once martial law is over, then the ball is in parliament’s court — the parliament then picks a date for elections," he said in an interview on 2 January.
Zelenskyy's key political rival, Petro Poroshenko, has also agreed that no elections should currently be taking place in Ukraine, adding that the only winner of such an election would be Putin.
Claim: Zelenskyy has an approval rating of 4 per cent
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine. Well, we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 per cent approval rating and where a country has been blown to smithereens. You got most of the cities are laying on their sides. The buildings are collapsed. It looks like a massive demolition site," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Fact check: Recent polling indicates Zelenkskyy has an approval rating of 57 per cent
It's unclear what source Trump was citing, but fresh polling indicates this is incorrect.
Official polling is limited and difficult to carry out during a time of war.
However, some by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted the president, up from 52 per cent in December.
Thirty-seven per cent of respondents did not trust him, also a slight drop from December polling of 39 per cent.
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As Trump embraces Russia, Ukraine and Europe warn against hasty negotiations
SBS News
19/02/202507:28
The Ukrainian leader said Trump's assertion that his approval rating was just 4 per cent was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail.
"We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, president Trump ... unfortunately lives in this disinformation space," Zelenskyy told Ukrainian TV.
Claim: Ukraine 'started' the war
"But today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," Trump said at the Florida press conference.
Fact check: Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin started the latest conflict in 2014 by annexing Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, and on 24 February 2022 ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The move was condemned internationally as a sign of unprovoked aggression.
Russia dubbed it a "special military operation" to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine, a justification Kyiv and the West rubbished.
It came against the backdrop of Zelenskyy's desire to join NATO, which would have put another member of the military alliance on Russia's doorstep.
The full-scale invasion has now rolled on for almost three years and counting.
"As we approach the three-year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the devastating toll of the war on civilians and civilian infrastructure is immense, with dramatic humanitarian consequences," United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
Claim: The US contributes more aid to Ukraine than Europe
Again speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said: "They have to find out, where is the money going to. I believe President Zelenskyy said last week that he doesn’t know where half of the money is that we gave him. Well, we gave them, I believe, $350 billion ($551 billion), but let’s say it’s something less than that. But it’s a lot, and we have to equalise with Europe because Europe has given a very much smaller percentage than that.
"I think Europe has given $100 billion ($157 billion) and we’ve given, let’s say, $300-plus, and it’s more important for them than it is for us. We have an ocean in between and they don’t. But where is all the money that’s been given? Where is it going? And I’ve never seen an accounting of it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars."
Fact check: Europe has overtaken the US in terms of Ukraine aid
There aren't clear-cut numbers to gauge how much aid the US has given Ukraine.
But the Kiel Institute for the World Economy's shows combined European aid has reached €132.3 billion ($217.4 billion).
"European donors have been the main source of aid to Ukraine since 2022, especially when it comes to financial and humanitarian aid," a Kiel Institute press release from 14 February said.
"Europe as a whole has clearly overtaken the US in terms of Ukraine aid. In total, Europe has allocated EUR $70 billion in financial and humanitarian aid as well as EUR $62 billion in military aid.
"This compares to EUR $64 billion in military aid from the US as well as EUR $50 billion in financial and humanitarian allocations."
With additional reporting by Reuters.
