Donald Trump takes over the Kremlin verbatim and accuses Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “election without elections”. The office of the American president intervenes following talks between the United States and Russia on Ukraine.
The exchange of criticisms between the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his American counterpart Donald Trump intensified again on Wednesday, after the latter qualified the Ukrainian leader of “dictator”.
“I like Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his country is in ruins and millions of people are unnecessarily died”Trump said in a message published on Truth Social.
“Zelensky would do better to act quickly, otherwise he will no longer have a country.”he added.
Mr. Trump’s hardwords were pronounced in response to a previous declaration by Mr. Zelensky, who said that The American president lived in the“Disinformation space” Russianfollowing the allegations of Mr. Trump according to which the role of Mr. Zelensky as president was illegitimate due to the absence of elections in Ukraine.
Before the large -scale invasion launched by Russia, Ukraine planned to organize a presidential election in March or April 2024, concluding the first five -year term of Mr. Zelensky.
The vote was postponed because The constitution of the country does not authorize the elections under the martial law, which was declared on February 24, 2022, the day when Russia launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has repeatedly sought to use this postponement to present Mr. Zelensky as “illegitimate”an assertion rejected by Kyiv, who sees it as a distortion of the Constitution.
Speaking on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian President said he was ready to discuss elections in Ukraine, but that his compatriots did not want it because they feared that the lifting of the law Martial does not weigh down the defense of the country.
“I focus on the survival of our country. This is what I did throughout my mandate”he said.
In the meantime, questions have been raised about the last presidential election in Russia in March 2024, when the outgoing president Vladimir Putin won his fifth term with 88 % of the vote.
The election was marred by the fact that Mr. Putin was not confronted with a credible opposition, several candidates having been prohibited from presenting himself by the Central Electoral Commission, among other irregularities.
Most international observers estimated that the ballot was neither free nor equitable.
