Home > World > World

Trump cohort doubles down on criticisms of Ukraine's Zelensky

Published: 03 Mar. 2025, 15:51

From left, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France's President Emmanuel Macron huddle after holding a meeting during a summit at Lancaster House in central London on March 2. [AFP/YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump's senior aides and allies lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Washington as he attended a European summit Sunday in London to rally international support for his military's ongoing fight against Russian invaders while U.S. support for the Eastern European nation wavers.

Following Trump's lead, White House officials and Republicans in Congress used news show appearances to demand that Zelensky display more gratitude for U.S. support and an openness to potential war-ending concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some suggested Zelensky should consider resigning even as Ukrainians rally around him .

But they offered little clarity as to what Zelensky and Ukraine could do after Friday's Oval Office meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him before canceling the signature of an economic agreement between Washington and Kyiv. The dispute leaves the future of that relationship in question, as well as the prospects for ending a conflict that began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, who while in Congress went to Ukraine during the first year of the war to meet Zelensky and once compared him to World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, said Zelensky's behavior at the White House was “incredibly disrespectful.”

Asked about that Churchill-Zelensky comparison, Waltz noted that Churchill was voted out of office in the final months of World War II.

Churchill “was a man for a moment, but he did not then transition England into the next phase,” Waltz said. “And it’s unclear whether President Zelensky, particularly after what we saw Friday, is ready to transition Ukraine to an end to this war and to negotiate and have to compromise.”

Waltz said a negotiated end to the war would involve territorial concessions from Ukraine as well as “Russian concessions on security guarantees," but he did not offer any more details about Moscow's obligations.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., echoed the suggestion that Zelensky may need to step down.

“Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that,” Johnson said. "I mean, it’s up to the Ukrainians to figure that out. But I can tell you that we are reexerting peace through strength.”

Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said the contentious meeting has led to “a huge rift in the relationship” and she took issue with Zelensky telling Fox News afterward that he did not think he did anything wrong.

“There’s going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good faith negotiations, I think, before President Trump is going to be willing to reengage on this,” she said.

The coordinated campaign of pressure from Washington played out as Zelensky and European leaders came to terms with Trump's overhaul of U.S. foreign policy. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom would use 1.6 billion pounds ($2 billion) in export financing to supply 5,000 air defense missiles for Ukraine.

Support for Zelensky among congressional Republicans has been scant after the Oval Office meeting. But Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the few GOP lawmakers willing to break with Trump publicly, criticized the Republican president's stance toward the Ukrainians.

“I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now, I am sick to my stomach as the administration appears to be walking away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and U.S. values around the world," Murkowski wrote on X on Saturday.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said it was inappropriate for senators to call for Zelensky to leave office and predicted that such a move would “spiral Ukraine into chaos right now.”

Others were more vocal in their support of Zelensky.

Millions of Americans “are embarrassed, are ashamed," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“Our job is to defend the 250-year tradition that we have of being the democratic leader of the world, not turn our backs on a struggling country that is trying to do the right thing,” Sanders said.

Waltz appeared on CNN's “State of the Union," Johnson, Sanders and Lankford were on NBC's ”Meet the Press," and Gabbard spoke on “Fox News Sunday.”

AP