KEIR Starmer backed Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call on Wednesday after Donald Trump claimed the Ukrainian president was “a dictator without elections”.
In the call, the Prime Minister gave Zelenskyy his support “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader” and said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two”, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.
The conversation followed a war of words between Trump and Zelenskyy, with the US president criticising his Ukrainian counterpart for postponing elections and incorrectly claiming Ukraine started the war with Russia.
Other British political figures, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, also pushed back against Trump’s remarks, although Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, understood to be travelling to the United States, was yet to comment.
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.
Trump repeated his attacks on Zelenskyy when he spoke at the Future Investment Initiative Forum, an organisation run by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, in Miami on Wednesday.
“He refuses to have elections, he’s slow. And the real Ukrainian polls, I mean, how can you be high when every city is being demolished? It’s hard to be,” he said. “Somebody said, ‘oh no, his polls are good’. Give me a break. Every city is being demolished. They look like a demolition site. Every single one of them… in the meantime, we’re successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia.”
Trump criticised Zelenskyy for being “upset” that he was excluded from Ukraine-Russia peace talks when talks were held in Saudi Arabia between Russia and the US.
“He’s very upset. That he wasn’t invited to Saudi Arabia. But he’s been working for three years. There’s never been even meetings or phone calls to stop this war. It’s a horrible thing now,” he said.
“I love Ukraine. But Zelenskyy has done a terrible job. His country is shattered and millions and millions of people have unnecessarily died. And you can’t bring a war to an end if you don’t talk to both sides. You got to talk. They haven’t been talking for three years.”
Trump took to Trump Social after the speech to share a quote from Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk which said: “The President’s instincts on Ukraine are absolutely right. It is really sad that so many parents have lost their sons, and so many sons their fathers in this pointless war.”
He told the BBC: “I think the Russians want to see the war end, I really do. I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory. They have the cards.”
When asked if he trusts that Russia wants peace, Trump said “I do”.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said Trump was living in a “disinformation space”, while others have accused the president of repeating Russian talking points.
