United States President Donald Trump has continued his attacks on Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a White House official said a deal on rare earth minerals was close.
Trump’s statements on Friday continued a days-long screed against Zelenskyy that has sent both Ukraine and Washington’s traditional European allies reeling. The criticism comes amid a wider policy shift on the conflict from the Trump administration, which included a bilateral meeting between US and Russian delegations earlier this week.
In an interview with Fox News radio, the US president again laid the blame for the destruction wrought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the Ukrainian leader.
When host Brian Kilmeade referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “Putin’s fault”, Trump replied: “I get tired of listening to it, I’ll tell you what.”
Trump also said Zelenskyy was “negotiating with no cards” and shot back at Kyiv’s criticism of being sidelined by the US in its recent engagement with Russia.
“He’s been at meetings for three years, and he got nothing, so I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest,” said Trump, who also criticised the Ukrainian leader during a meeting with US governors later in the day.
Meanwhile, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Friday that he believed Ukraine would soon sign a deal that would grant Washington access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for continued support in the war.
The Trump administration has been pressuring Kyiv on the deal, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously travelling to Kyiv seeking 50 percent ownership of the minerals. At the time, Zelenskyy rejected the offer.
“Look, here’s the bottom line, President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” Waltz said, speaking at a conference near Washington, DC, “and that is good for Ukraine.”
Escalating attacks
The unrelenting criticism of Zelenskyy comes amid a wider pivot away from the former administration of US President Joe Biden, who sought to strengthen transatlantic alliances and pledged perpetual support for Ukraine.
The Trump administration has taken a different tact, with US Defence Chief Pete Hegseth telling NATO allies last week that Ukraine must accept that it will not regain territory lost to Russia since 2014 and would not become a member of the bloc.
Critics have said the position appears to offer Russia major concessions before peace negotiations have even begun.
After US and Russian delegations met in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, both sides said they had agreed to start a preliminary process to launch talks.
Just hours later, Trump suggested Ukraine should “have never started” the war. Zelenskyy shot back the next day that the US president was operating in a “disinformation space”.
That then prompted a misinformation-laden social media rant from Trump, who called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” and claimed he had lost the support of the Ukrainian public.
Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia’s invasion, and has therefore not held elections. Opinion polls have regularly shown a majority of Ukrainians support Zelenskyy.
Even opposition figures in Ukraine have come to his defence in recent days.
“We may have different opinions about Zelenskyy, but only Ukrainian citizens have the right to judge his support,” Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the opposition party Holos, told The Associated Press.
“And to publicly criticise him too, because, in the end, he is our elected leader.”
‘Embattled and courageous’
Trump’s statements have met a wave of condemnation from European leaders.
On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at his last major campaign event in advance of elections on Sunday, pledged European unity with Ukraine.
“We won’t leave Ukraine alone and decide things over their heads, and we will ensure that Ukraine is a country that can choose its own government,” he said.
The leaders of France and the UK were also set to address the US position during a White House visit next week.
Speaking on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would warn Trump that he cannot “be weak” with Putin.
Poland’s conservative President Andrzej Duda, who is also reportedly set to meet with Trump next week, has taken a different approach.
In a post on X, he said he urged Zelenskyy during a call on Friday to “remain committed to the course of calm and constructive cooperation” with Trump.
He added there was “no other way to stop the bloodshed and achieve lasting peace in Ukraine except with the support of the United States”.
For his part, US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg struck a softer tone in a post on X on Friday, a day after he met Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Following that meeting, a joint news conference between the duo had been cancelled at the reported request of the US.
In the post, Kellogg called Zelenskyy “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”. He added he had had “extensive and positive” discussions with Zelenskyy and his “talented national security team”.
