A war of words has erupted between the pair.
Donald Trump’s national security advisor has said that the US president is “very frustrated” with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, as talks of a potential peace negotiation between the US and Russia continue.
The comments come just days after Trump labelled Zelensky a ‘dictator’ and accused Ukraine of starting the war.
Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, the 78-year-old wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
He added: “I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.”
Now, US national security advisor, Mike Waltz, has claimed that Trump is growing more and more frustrated with Zelensky, and accused the Ukranian president of insulting his leader.
“There’s obviously a lot of frustration here,” said Waltz. “And that’s because we presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy.”
He added: “Why we’re getting this pushback and certainly this, kind of, as the vice president said, ‘bad-mouthing’ in the press for all the administration has done, in his first term as well, and all the United States has done for Ukraine, it’s just — it’s unacceptable.
“They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal.”
Waltz did not respond when asked whether Trump sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as a dictator. He also failed to give an answer when asked whether Trump thinks Zelenskyy or Putin was more responsible for the war.
Speaking following peace talks between the US and Russia, which were held last week in Saudi Arabia, Trump said: “I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going well.”
He then proceeded to launch a verbal attack on the Ukranian leader: “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine — where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 percent approval rating.
“Yeah, I would say that — you know, they want a seat at the table,” Trump added. “You could say the people have to, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election. That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries.”
Trump also repeated his claims that he could have prevented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that would have “given them almost all of the land… and no people would have been killed.”
“They chose not to do it that way,” he added.
