KEIR Starmer has remained silent after even the Tories called out Donald Trump’s claims that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “dictator” who started the war with Russia.
Trump made the most recent claim in a tirade on TruthSocial, his own social media platform, on Wednesday.
The US president attacked Zelenskyy, saying the only thing he “was good at was playing [former US president Joe] Biden ‘like a fiddle’”.
In a post littered with falsehoods, Trump wrote: “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion dollars [an inaccurate figure], to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a war that he, without the US and ‘Trump’, will never be able to settle.
“The United States has spent $200 billion dollars more than Europe [also inaccurate], and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back.”
Trump added: “He refuses to have elections, is very low in Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’. A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”
It came just one day after Trump claimed that Ukraine had started the war which began when Russia invaded in February 2022.
Sharing Trump's statement in full, First Minister John Swinney said: "This is completely and utterly wrong. Scotland stands with Ukraine."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also contradicted the US president, writing on social media: “President Zelenskyy is not a dictator.
However, Badenoch did say that Trump was “right that Europe needs to pull his weight”, and urged Starmer to “get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership”.
Trump’s comments about Zelenskyy drew stronger criticism from Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, who said they “must be where the line is drawn”.
He added: “It is my sincere hope that the whole political spectrum in the United Kingdom will speak with one voice in opposition to Trump’s lies.”
Downing Street has yet to respond to Trump’s post as Starmer prepares to meet him in Washington next week.
That meeting will see Britain attempt to balance support for Ukraine with the need to keep the White House on-side.
The FT reported that Labour ministers said Starmer is "anxious to avoid antagonising Trump" due to the threat of tariffs.
"Why would you rock the boat now?” one minister told that paper.
Earlier in the day, however, Defence Secretary John Healey pushed back on a previous claim from Trump that Ukraine had started the war, telling reporters: “Three years ago, one country illegally invaded another, and since then, the Ukrainians have been fighting for their freedom.
“They’ve been fighting for their future, and they still are. So whilst all the focus may be on talks, not even negotiations, our concern as defence ministers is that we’re not jeopardising the peace by forgetting about the war.”
Later on Wednesday, after this story was published, Downing Street said that Starmer had spoken to Zelenskyy – but he called for unity rather than criticised Trump's statements.
“The Prime Minister spoke to President Zelenskyy this evening and stressed the need for everyone to work together," a No 10 spokesperson said.
“The Prime Minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II.
“The Prime Minister reiterated his support for the US-led efforts to get a lasting peace in Ukraine that deterred Russia from any future aggression.”
Trump’s attack on Zelenskyy is the latest stage in a war of words between the two men, with the Ukrainian president saying earlier on Wednesday that his American counterpart was living in a “disinformation space” created by Russia.
Trump has also been accused of repeating Russian talking points, incorrectly claiming that Zelensky has an approval rate of 4% and criticising him for not holding elections last year due to the ongoing conflict.
Zelenskyy was elected as president of Ukraine in May 2019. Elections were previously scheduled to go ahead in 2024, but they were not held as a result of martial law being in place.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who was in office when the war began, sought to defend Trump, claiming his statements were “not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action”.
The spat between Zelenskyy and Trump comes after Washington and Moscow started talks earlier this week to broker peace in Ukraine, led by US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Ukraine was not invited to the talks earlier this week between the US and Russia, which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and concluded with ground rules for further diplomacy. European countries were also locked out of the talks.
Meanwhile, Europe is scrambling to respond to the turmoil over Ukraine’s future and what it could mean for wider continental security. The Prime Minister attended a meeting in Paris with other leaders earlier this week and urged Trump to provide a “backstop” to any settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Prime Minister has committed to consider sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, but Trump said on Tuesday that the US would not “have to” deploy soldiers to monitor a possible ceasefire.
