WASHINGTON (AP) —President Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections," lashing out after the Ukrainian president said Trump was being influenced by Russian disinformation as he moves to end the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine on terms that Kyiv says are too favorable to Moscow.
On social media, Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall wrote," There will be no more blank checks to Ukraine under President Trump. It’s time for the war to end, and we must put America first."
In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Zelenskyy “a modestly successful comedian” who talked the United States into spending billions of dollars “to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.” He said Ukraine would be unable to end the war without Trump’s help.
Trump’s post comes a day after he suggested in a news conference that Ukraine should hold elections as part of a peace plan.
“A Dictator without Elections,” Trump wrote Wednesday.
Zelenskyy was elected president in 2019 after a career as an entertainer. He resisted pressure to leave the country when Russia invaded in 2022, mounting a defense that protected the capital, Kyiv.
Zelenskyy accused Trump earlier Wednesday of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”