As Trump warms up to Russia, does he want Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to go?

It’s dark, dark times for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For the first time since the war Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, the Ukrainian president finds himself iced out as US President Donald Trump took aim at him and the country, almost embracing Russia.

After cutting Zelenskyy out of the historic US talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia on ending the war, the US president accused Kyiv of starting the conflict, which has now ravaged the land and killed thousands of its people.

And it didn’t stop there — Trump even voiced one of Russia’s main talking points that it was time for an election in Ukraine, an apparent bid to push Zelenskyy aside.

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The question that many are asking is: Is Trump pushing Zelenskyy out?

Trump’s stunning attack against Zelenskyy

On Tuesday (February 18), Trump took aim at Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, making his most hostile comments yet against the leader and the country.

“You should have never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine while criticising Zelenskyy, adding, “I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Trump went on to say, “I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”

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But it didn’t stop there. The US president also expressed his interest in forcing elections in Ukraine. “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.’ That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,” Trump said.

The US president also added, “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine — I mean I hate to say it, but he’s down at four per cent approval rating — and the country’s been blown to smithereens.”

Trump’s statement is, however, factually incorrect; while Zelenskyy’s public approval rating has dropped, it is 52 per cent according to a poll held last month.

These comments are in reference to the politics of Ukraine. Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and was expected to remain in office until last May and elections slated for April 2024. However, the country has been placed under martial law since the war began in 2022, pushing polls back.

Trump’s near embrace of Putin

Tuesday’s remarks by Trump on Ukrainian elections are worrying for Kyiv and Europe, as it parrots Putin’s ambition of removing him from office.

Moreover, many note that Trump’s latest remarks are a growing indicator of the US president cosying up to Russia and its leader. In fact, in his remarks, Trump praised Russia saying, “They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.”

Trump has been icing out Zelenskyy — an earlier indicator was when Trump chose to hold a phone call with Putin first and then relay the details to the Ukrainian president last week. Furthermore, neither was Ukraine nor Europe a part of the important talks held in Riyadh on Tuesday.

In the past too, Trump and his administration have said that it was unlikely Kyiv would win back all its territory or join Nato if a deal is to be reached. The US president said that he was “okay” with Ukraine not having Nato membership and that it was “unlikely” that Ukraine would take much land back in the negotiations.

Russia “took a lot of land and they fought for that land and they lost a lot of soldiers”, he told reporters in the Oval Office.

“I’m just here to try and get peace,” he said. “I don’t care so much about anything other than I want to stop having millions of people killed.”

These remarks are, according to experts, great concessions to Russia and Putin.

US-Russia reset ties at talks

Trump’s blistering attack against Ukraine came in the backdrop of the US-Russia talks that were held in Riyadh on Tuesday. The two sides moved toward a head-spinning reset of their relationship, agreeing to work together on ending the Ukraine war, financial investment and re-establishing normal relations.

The meeting between senior officials from both countries was a striking display of bonhomie after three years of American efforts to isolate Moscow for its 2022 invasion.

After more than four hours of talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both sides had agreed to work on a peace settlement for Ukraine as well as to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians,” both geopolitically and economically.

Chiming in, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “We weren’t just listening to each other, but we heard each other. I have reason to believe that the American side started to better understand our positions.

Outlining what would come next, Rubio said that a three-step plan had been put in place. First, he said, both countries would negotiate how to remove restrictions placed on each other’s embassies in Moscow and Washington, which are operating with skeleton staffs after years of tit-for-tat expulsions.

Also, the US would engage with Russia about “parameters of what an end” to the Ukraine war would look like.

The last step would be for both countries to explore new partnerships in geopolitics and in business.

Zelenskyy reacts

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy, who has been pushed to the sidelines, reiterated that he would not accept the results of talks, as they were held “behind Ukraine’s back”.

During his visit to Turkey’s Ankara, Zelenskyy said that no decision could be made without Kyiv on how to end the war and that he would always reject Putin’s “ultimatums”.

He added that it was important that negotiations do not happen “behind the backs of the key subjects.” Any decisions, he added, “cannot be imposed” on Ukraine.

However, it appears that Zelenskyy’s statements are just words, as Russia and the US seem to be in no mood to listen.

With inputs from agencies