Trump appears to blame UKRAINE for war and dismisses Zelensky’s anger at being cut out of peace talks

Donald Trump appears to have blamed Ukraine for Russia’s invasion of the country three years ago, as he dismissed Volodymr Zelensky’s anger at being cut out of peace talks and criticised him for not making a deal to end the war sooner.

‘You should never have started it,’ the US President said of Kyiv as he took aim at the Ukrainian President for raising concerns that his country had not been at the table in talks between Washington and Moscow on Tuesday.

‘I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today, I heard, “Oh, well, we weren’t invited.” Well, you’ve been there for three years. 

‘You should have ended it. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine,’ Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

After the meeting between US and Russian officials in Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump said he was ‘much more confident’.

‘They were very good,’ he said. ‘Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.’

The stunning claim came as Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a blistering aerial attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight, striking a children’s clinic and kindergarten and leaving much of the city without power.

As fears mount that Washington could force Kyiv into an agreement it doesn’t want, Zelensky said yesterday that Ukraine will never accept a deal made without Ukraine’s input, and hit out at the US and Russia for holding talks ‘behind our backs’.

Donald Trump appears to have blamed Ukraine for Russia ‘s invasion of the country, as he dismissed Volodymr Zelensky ‘s anger for being cut out of peace talks

Zelensky has demanded that Ukraine be included in any talks about its future 

The US and Russian delegations have been pictured attending the bilateral meeting at the Diriyah Palace this morning

But Trump responded furiously to his comments, further attacking Zelensky at last night’s press conference in Mar-a-Lago by saying it had been ‘too long’ since Ukrainian had held elections for him to have a seat at the table.

Trump insisted this point was ‘not a demand from Russia,’ but ‘something that comes from me and from many other countries.’

However the claim is straight out of Moscow’s playbook – and failed to mention that Russia’s recent election in 2024 was rigged, with Putin’s foes killed, jailed or exiled, with votes distorted and the media muzzled to give him a landslide victory.

Trump went on to falsely claim that Zelensky is only supported by four per cent of Ukrainians. 

Asked about the prospect of European countries sending troops to Ukraine, Trump said: ‘If they want to do that, that’s great, I’m all for it. If they want to do that, I think that’d be fine. I mean, I know France has mentioned it, others have mentioned it, UK has mentioned it.’

However, he added: ‘We won’t have to put any over there because, you know, we’re very far away.’

Sir Keir Starmer called for the US to provide a ‘backstop’ for any deal in Ukraine yesterday as European leaders desperately tried to put on a united front in support of Kyiv ahead of today’s talks. 

But Sir Keir said that a US security guarantee would be ‘the only way to effectively deter Russia’ from rebuilding its forces and launching another attack.

Smoke rises in the sky over the city after a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 17, 2025. The attack came after US-Russia talks ended in Saudi Arabia

Putin ‘s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday declared that Moscow has no plans to give territory it has seized in Ukraine over to Kyiv

During a visit to Turkey yesterday, Zelensky vowed that Ukraine would not bow to Moscow’s demands.

‘I wonder why they believe Ukraine would accept all these ultimatums now if we refused them at the most difficult moment,’ the Ukrainian President said, referring to Kyiv’s refusal to bow to Moscow’s demands during crisis talks at the start of the war.

Zelensky pointed out that there were ‘no agreements with the Russians during the occupation of Kyiv region,’ nor during negotiations in Belarus or Turkey.

Moscow at the time called for a reduction in the number of Ukrainian troops, recognition of occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia, and the appointment of a pro-Russian government in Kyiv. 

‘As President of Ukraine, I have never given any guarantees to anyone or confirmed anything. Moreover, I have never intended to accept Russia’s ultimatums. And I am not going to,’ Zelensky said.

He added that while Ukraine wants the war to end, ‘we want it to be fair and that no one decides anything behind our backs.’ 

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