Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday that he believed President Donald Trump found his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, more irritating than him because of his dishonesty.
The comments were in response to a journalist directly asking Zelensky at a press event who he thought the White House was more annoyed with, him or Putin, after a week in which Trump has published increasingly frustrated statements condemning Putin for expanding attacks on civilians in Ukraine, according to the state outlet Ukrinform. The news agency published the remarks on Wednesday.
Trump campaigned throughout 2024 on the promise of helping end Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 when Putin colonized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. A new stage of the invasion began in February 2022, a full-scale invasion Russia dubbed a “special operation” to depose Zelensky, following former President Joe Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on Russia’s lucrative Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Nord Stream 2 and its sister project, Nord Stream 1, were ultimately destroyed by mysterious explosions later in 2022.
While Trump’s vow to end the Ukraine invasion in 24 hours has yet to materialize, he has been prominently active in mediation attempts to end Russia’s ongoing assault of the country. Those attempts have been at times contentious, most prominently when Trump expelled Zelensky from the Oval Office in February after the latter began arguing at a photo event intended to promote a joint minerals agreement the two ultimately did not sign that day. A version of the agreement was signed last week.
Russia has dismissed Trump’s public frustration as evidence of his “emotional” nature while continuing its relentless drone attacks on Ukraine. Zelensky answered the question about Trump’s perceived annoyance in that context.
“I think Putin [is more annoying],” Ukrinform quoted Zelensky as saying. “Because I may be saying unpleasant things, but I’m telling the truth. And I say what I think. And he may sometimes say very nice things, but they are lies. And I think that for intelligent people, those who lie are more concerning.”
Zelensky described the White House as “really disappointed” in Russia’s failure to take any attempts to reach peace seriously.
“I think the White House as a whole understands that Putin definitely doesn’t want to finish anything, as the White House wants,” he noted, adding that with Putin, “if you think you are in a dialogue, you are really alone.” In contrast, he described himself and Trump as “partners” who may sometimes be “very uncomfortable” but ultimately cooperating.
The remarks follow the sternest language Trump has used against Russia yet in his second term in office. The president published a message on his social media outlet, Truth Social, on Sunday declaring he was “not happy” with Putin and accusing him of indiscriminate massacres of civilians.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote. “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”
Trump also used the statement to more mildly complain about Zelensky.
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” he griped.
Trump separately told reporters, “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin … something happened to this guy, and I don’t like it.”
“We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities and I don’t like it at all… I’m surprised, I’m very surprised, we’ll see what we’re going to do,” he continued.
Trump repeated his warnings to Putin in a written statement on Tuesday.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!” the president warned.
Putin himself has not personally responded to Trump’s warnings. His officials have dismissed them as a result of his allegedly mercurial personality, however, rather than directly addressing Trump’s concern for civilian life
“This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overstrain of everyone, absolutely, and with emotional reactions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov similarly waved off Trump’s comments.
“Of course, he gets emotional, and, of course, as someone who does not like anything to stand in the way of his noble goals, he looks at it a certain way, shifts rhetoric,” Lavrov claimed.
Despite Russia’s unhelpful disposition, Zelensky has continued to insist on scheduling peace talks in pursuit of an end to the invasion. Speaking to reporters this week, Zelensky suggested that the most hospitable neutral venues for such talks would be Turkey, the Vatican, or Switzerland, dismissing calls from Moscow to have its close ally Belarus host negotiations.
“The Turkish side is aware that we are considering several venues. We have already conducted preparatory work regarding the Vatican and Switzerland,” Zelensky explained, Ukrinform reported on Wednesday. “In principle, everyone supports the Vatican, though it seems Russia does not, based on what we see in the media space… Switzerland is also highly interested, and we have no objections.”
Russia has not at press time responded to this proposal.
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