Public duel between US, Ukraine leaders continues as Trump voices mountain of accusations

The public feud between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has entered it's latest round with the former posting a rant on social media in which he called the latter a dictator.

Trump accused Zelenskyy in his Truth Social page post on February 19 of being a "dictator" and saying he "has done a terrible job" navigating Russia’s invasion, Caliber.Az reports.

The US president went on to blame Zelenskyy, who he called a “modestly successful comedian” in a reference to his previous career as an entertainer, of having “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.”

He also claimed Zelenskyy  “refuses to have Elections” and falsely accused the Ukrainian leader of being “very low” in polls. He went on stating that Ukraine “played” former president Joe Biden “like a fiddle” for military assistance funds approved by the US Congress over the last three years.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote. Earlier this week Trump told reporters that his calls for elections to be held in Ukraine were not echoing Russian demands but were coming from himself, apparently responding to criticism in the media that accused Trump of playing into the hands of Russian propaganda.

Trump's outlash came in response to the Ukrainian leader having accused the US president of living "in this disinformation space." 

“I would like Trump’s team to be more truthful, all of this definitely doesn’t affect Ukraine in a positive way. They are letting Putin out of isolation, and I think Putin and Russia are really happy because they are involved in discussions, and yesterday [February 18] there were signals that they are the victims," Zelenskyy said earlier on February 19 prior to Trump's posts, hinting at the Riyadh meeting between Russia's and US' top diplomats.

It was the first public meeting between the two countries' officials in almost 3 years and was aimed at making the first steps in restoring communication channels, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said were essential for starting the process of negotiating a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict. The sudden announcement of this meeting sent European leaders into a frenzy, voicing frustration for not being invited to join the negotiations. Ukraine's president was equally dissatisfied with not being present at the meeting, stating "decisions on how to end the war in Ukraine cannot be made without Ukraine." 

By Nazrin Sadigova