President Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine should hold elections to potentially replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“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.
Trump claimed Zelensky, who was first elected in 2019, has a “4% approval rating” — despite polls showing the Ukrainian president hovering just above 50%.
Presidential elections were scheduled for April of 2024, but none were held since Ukraine has been in a state of martial law since Russia launched the largest invasion since World War II in February of 2022.
Zelensky, in 2023, said an election would give way to “political divides” at a time when the country should be focused on defense.
Trump’s delegation met with Russian officials for the first time to start peace talks in a four-and-a-half hour meeting in the Saudi kingdom, without the presence of any Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky said at a press conference in Turkey that he was “surprised” 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 said in response to Ukraine wanting to be in the meeting.
“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.”
Zelensky, just hours earlier, had slammed the idea of Russia wanting to impose new elections in Ukraine as a part of a potential peace plan.
He said he would not settle for “ultimatums” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s rhetoric on Zelensky has changed in the last week after he had a phone call with Putin and his team had the talks in Saudi Arabia.
The president 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 then criticized Zelensky 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.”
The president also claimed Ukraine was the country that “started” the war with Russia, despite Moscow launching missiles into Ukraine.
