US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ‘has no cards’ and is not very important in peace talks with Russia.
Trump launched his latest attack at Zelensky on Friday, three days after US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia and did not invite Ukraine’s leader.
‘I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards,’ said Trump of Zelensky on Fox News Radio.
‘He has no cards. And you get sick of it.’
Trump added: ‘So, I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He makes it very hard to make deals.’
The US president seemed to elaborate on a remark he made two days earlier, elevating Russia in the negotiations to end the war with Ukraine.
‘I think they have the cards a little but, because they’ve taken a lot of territory,’ Trump said of Russians on Wednesday.
‘They have the cards.’
On Friday, Trump said Ukrainian leaders ‘don’t have any cards’.
‘I’ve had very good talks with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine. They don’t have any cards, but they play it tough,’ Trump told US governors gathered at the White House on Friday.
‘But we’re not going to let this continue.’
Trump also walked back on his previous claim that Zelensky started the war that has gone on for three years. It was actually Russia that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
’They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger — which is a bad thing to do, and you don’t do that — but Russia could have been talked out of that so easily,’ he said on Fox News Radio.
Trump bashed both Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden.
‘I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things,’ he said.
Sidelined from peace talks in Riyadh, Zelensky earlier this week said Trump ‘lives in a disinformation space’.
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