Ukrainians shocked, defiant in face of Trump attacks on Zelensky
Ukrainian officials feel betrayed but defiant after President Trump this week blamed their president for Russia’s invasion, as the U.S. pursues talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war Russia’s president started three years ago.
Desperately reliant on U.S. military support, Ukrainian officials are pushing back on Trump’s rhetoric without destroying their alliance with Washington, inside and outside the White House. And they’re imploring Europe to make itself relevant in fast-moving developments between the U.S. and Russia.
“It is painful, it’s not easy, it’s not easy to process,” Kira Rudik, member of the Ukrainian parliament and leader of the opposition Golos party, said of Trump’s remarks.
Trump on Wednesday called Zelensky a “dictator” doing a “terrible job,” apparently in anger over Zelensky saying Trump was operating in a disinformation bubble. That was in response to Trump's remarks Tuesday apparently blaming Ukraine’s leader for Russia’s invasion.
The rhetorical tit-for-tat was a mistake, said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament for the opposition European Solidarity party.
“What’s happening, it's a catastrophe,” he said, speaking to The Hill by phone from Odesa, with air raid sirens sounding in the background warning of potential Russian aerial strikes by missile or drone.
“That was a very big mistake from Zelensky to react to what Trump said … that Trump is in a disinformation bubble — after that it was clear Trump would react. We know that these things, for him being criticized publicly, I don’t know, it is the worst possible thing,” Goncharenko added.
“The best thing now, I think, just is not to reply anymore and try to find somebody who will message Trump and try to rebuild at least some kind of relationships — because we need United States, that’s all. We desperately need the U.S.”
Speaking with The Hill from Kyiv, Rudik rejected Trump’s calls for elections in Ukraine as a Russian ploy to weaken the front-line positions and make the country more vulnerable to disruption and attack.
Rudik, an opposition member of parliament, has largely lined up behind Zelensky throughout the war and defended him against Trump’s attacks calling Ukraine’s president a “dictator” doing a “terrible job.”
“When we started hearing these statements from President Trump, I can tell you, I wish I never had to be in the position that I am right now as a politician,” she said, again with air raid sirens audible at times.
In conversations with victims of Putin’s aggression — soldiers on the front line, civilians hiding in bomb shelters, war widows, parents whose children were killed or kidnapped — Rudik is trying to reassure them that Ukraine is not alone.
“I wish I didn't have to do it. I try to explain this as a negotiation technique, where President Trump is trying to pressure Zelensky and see how far he can push,” she said.
Trump has long sought to bend Zelensky to his will. During his first term, Trump tried to pressure Zelensky to launch an investigation into former President Biden, his 2020 opponent; that conversation led to Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Trump’s latest remarks criticizing Zelensky, and his moves to warm ties with Putin, stand in sharp contrast to much of the Republican leadership in Washington. Most GOP senators condemn Putin as a war criminal and praise Zelensky as a hero, defending against a much bigger, hostile nuclear-armed power.
“How do you deter Putin? You arm this guy to the teeth,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said sitting next to Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference last week.
“Remind me not to invade Ukraine, OK? It just doesn't work out well.”
Graham is a close ally of Trump, and in recent days he has straddled the gap between advocating for Zelensky and supporting Trump’s outreach to Putin. Graham was behind the proposal that Ukraine offer U.S. investment in mining critical minerals and rare earth in exchange for security guarantees.
But Zelensky rejected Trump’s initial proposal for a deal, calling it “not serious.” Tensions escalated when Zelensky complained of being excluded from a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this week.
Trump responded with extraordinary vitriol. Over the course of two days, Trump appeared to blame Zelensky for starting the war with Russia — Moscow invaded Ukraine first in 2014, annexing the Crimean Peninsula, and again in Feb. 2022, launching a full-scale invasion.
And Trump said Zelensky was doing a “terrible job,” shared an incorrect approval rating and challenged him to hold elections, which would conflict with martial law imposed during the war.
“I am surprised at the visceral reaction he’s had because I think he knows Ukraine did not start this war; I think he knows Zelensky is the democratically elected president of Ukraine,” said retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.
“I think he’s frustrated,” Montgomery said. Trump has expanded the timeline for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine from a campaign promise of 24 hours. But even the 100 days he now predicts may be too short a time frame to hash out an endurable and mutually acceptable end to the fighting.
“I don't believe President Trump likes to be proven wrong. I think unfortunately this is a much more complex issue,” Montgomery said.
“The U.S. does not have leverage right now. We’ll have to step back and take actions against Russia to restore leverage. And his other option was to try and bully Zelensky into a deal. I think the bullying is failing.”
Graham, apparently seeking to act as an interlocutor between Trump and Zelensky, spoke Wednesday with the Ukrainian leader.
“As always, Senator Graham is constructive and doing a lot to help bring peace closer,” Zelensky posted on social platform X.
Zelensky is also focused on enlisting retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as a key ally. Trump appointed Kellogg to lead his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, but he was not part of the delegation that met with Russian officials in Riyadh this week. Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday and first met with Zelensky’s top adviser, Andriy Yermak.
“We hope that Gen. Kellogg will get this understanding from Ukraine about what we are fighting for, and how determined we are to continue fighting for that,” said Rudik, the opposition leader, “and that if we did not capitulate in 2022 then it is useless to hope that we will capitulate right now, especially that all of us have already paid an ultimate price to be where we are.”
Oleh Shamshur, a former Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., said Trump’s remarks against Zelensky triggered “shock and betrayal” across the country’s political spectrum this week, whether they generally see Trump as potentially helpful or disastrous to the country’s future.
“The things that happened and were voiced over the recent week by Trump and members of his team has undermined the very fundamentals of common-position adopted by trans-Atlantic community on Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Shamshur told The Hill by text from Ukraine.
Reuters reported Thursday that the Trump administration is refusing to co-sponsor a United Nations resolution marking three years since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine that backs Kyiv's territorial integrity and condemns Russian aggression.
“Territorial integrity of Ukraine, its future as a sovereign and democratic state, its NATO membership, steady support of its heroic fight against Russian invasion – all that seem to be thrown under the bus,” Shamshur said.
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