White House advisor tells Ukrainian leader to ‘tone it down’
The White House has told Ukrainian leader, President Zelensky, to ‘tone it down’ after he accused US President Donald Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble.”
Reported by the Independent on February 21st, Donald Trump has sparked fresh international outrage after trying to silence the Ukrainian President who was defending himself over the US president’s labelling of him as a “dictator”.
The White House has accused Zelensky of “badmouthing” the US president with Vice President, JD Vance, warning on Wednesday that attacking Trump would backfire: “everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.”
In recent days, the US President has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Saudi-mediated meeting to discuss the future of the Ukrainian war, with neither a Ukrainian or European representative at the table. Following the meeting, the US president labelled Ukrainian President Zelensky a “dictator”, calling for fresh elections in the war-torn country.
Elections were meant to be held in May 2024 but Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full0scale invasion in February 2022. Under conditions of war, it is “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections” as the UK did during World War II, according to a British spokesperson and reported by the BBC.
After the meeting, Zelensky has been pressured to sign a peace deal with Russia and hand over hundreds of billions of pounds worth of mineral reserves to the US. This refers to Trump’s bid to gain access to rare minerals like Titanian as compensation for the aid the US has already given Ukraine under the Biden administration.
Zelensky has publicly rejected Trump’s deal, saying: “I can’t sell our state.” He added that the US had supplied $67 billion worth of weapons and $31.5 billion in direct budget support during the war which pales in comparison to the $500 billion in minerals Trump is requesting, labelling the proposal as unserious.
European leaders have not responded well to Trump’s “dictator” slur including from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said, “it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelensky his democratic legitimacy.” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also criticized the use of the word “dictator.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the comments “absurd” before savagely adding, “if you look at the real world rather than just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” reported by the BBC.
The future of the Ukraine-Russian war seems ambiguous as Europe scrambles for attention and inclusion in the peace negotiations between the US and Russia, which seem more of a carving up of the European continent back into spheres of interest rather than a peace.
The Independent, BBC News
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