Badenoch and Davey hit out at Trump’s claim Zelensky is a ‘dictator’
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky have engaged in a war of words since the US began talks with Russia on ending the war without Ukraine.
British opposition figures have hit out at Donald Trump after he claimed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was “a dictator without elections”.
Mr Trump made the claim in a tirade on TruthSocial, his own social media platform, in which he attacked Mr Zelensky, saying he had “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”.
The president’s post brought disagreement from Kemi Badenoch, who said: “President Zelensky is not a dictator.
“He is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion. Under my leadership, and under successive Conservative prime ministers, we have and always will stand with Ukraine.”
Adding that Mr Trump was “right that Europe needs to pull his weight”, she said she would support Sir Keir Starmer to increase defence spending and urged him to “get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership”.
But the president’s comments about Mr Zelensky drew stronger criticism from Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, who said they “must be where the line is drawn”.
He added: “It is my sincere hope that the whole political spectrum in the United Kingdom will speak with one voice in opposition to Trump’s lies.”
Downing Street has yet to respond to Mr Trump’s post as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to meet him in Washington next week.
That meeting will see Britain attempt to balance support for Ukraine with the need to keep the White House onside.
Earlier in the day, however, Defence Secretary John Healey pushed back on a previous claim from Mr Trump that Ukraine had started the war, telling reporters: “Three years ago, one country illegally invaded another, and since then, the Ukrainians have been fighting for their freedom.
“They’ve been fighting for their future, and they still are. So whilst all the focus may be on talks, not even negotiations, our concern as defence ministers is that we’re not jeopardising the peace by forgetting about the war.”
Mr Healey made his comments on a trip to Norway, where he met his Norwegian counterpart Tore Sandvik and urged European allies to put “maximum pressure” on Vladimir Putin to ensure he would “negotiate seriously”.
Mr Trump’s attack on Mr Zelensky is the latest stage in a war of words between the two men, with the Ukrainian president saying earlier on Wednesday that his American counterpart was living in a “disinformation space”.
That in turn followed a statement by Mr Trump in which he said Ukraine “should never have started” the war and “could have made a deal”.
Mr Trump has also been accused of repeating Russian talking points, incorrectly claiming that Mr Zelensky has an approval rate of 4% and criticising him for not holding elections last year due to the ongoing conflict.
Mr Zelensky was elected as president of Ukraine in May 2019. Elections were previously scheduled to go ahead in 2024, but they were not held as a result of martial law being in place.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who was in office when the war began, sought to defend Mr Trump, claiming his statements were “not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action”.
Earlier on Wednesday he asked when Europeans will “stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?”
In a message posted on X, Mr Johnson said: “Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbour.
“Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945.
“Of course Zelensky’s ratings are not 4%. They are actually about the same as Trump’s.”
The spat between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump comes after Washington and Moscow started talks earlier this week to broker peace in Ukraine, led by US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Ukraine was not invited to the talks earlier this week between the US and Russia, which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and concluded with ground rules for further diplomacy. European countries were also locked out of the talks.
Meanwhile, Europe is scrambling to respond to the turmoil over Ukraine’s future and what it could mean for wider continental security. The Prime Minister attended a meeting in Paris with other leaders earlier this week and urged Mr Trump to provide a “backstop” to any settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Prime Minister has committed to consider sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, but Mr Trump said on Tuesday that the US would not “have to” deploy soldiers to monitor a possible ceasefire.
