President Donald Trump has made a series of claims about Ukraine and its leaders as he is about to end a three-year war with Russia.
Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” and said he “started” a war with Russia, so Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky is publicly sour, and the politics of the claims are Pants on He said he evaluated Fire’s falsehood. The war of words escalated after Zelensky accused Trump of repeating the misinformation of Russia.
Trump, who sent his team to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to launch negotiations to end a war that does not include Ukraine, said he was “superficial” in which Zelensky is a prominent role in playing former US president Joe Biden “like a fiddle.” He explained that he is a successful comedian.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Here we have confirmed the facts of six of Trump’s claims about Zelensky and Ukraine.
Claim: Zelensky launched a war with Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought to blame Ukraine for the war he began when he began the invasion on February 24, 2022. Arabia ends the war.
“I heard today [from Ukraine]”Well, we weren’t invited.” Now, you were there for three years. You should have finished it for three years – you should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said.
The killings of an estimated 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers and at least 12,000 Ukrainian civilians in the conflict are well documented.
News reports, video footage, and the United Nations recorded Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in real time. Putin announced the “Special Military Operation” at 6am on February 24, 2022 at Moscow (03:00 GMT).
“The purpose of this operation is to protect those facing humiliation and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years,” Putin said at the address that aired. The transcription of his speech used the spelling of the Ukrainian capital of Russia. “To this end, we will denounce, denajiize Ukraine and bring people to trial who have committed many bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.”
Putin’s false rationalization of war was named the lie of the year of politics in 2022.
Claim: Zelenskyy is a dictator
A professor studying democracy and dictatorships said this was a false feature.
Zelenskyy was democratically elected for a five-year term in March 2019 with over 73% of votes. He would have been re-electioned in March or April last year. However, Ukraine imposed martial law after the Russian invasion. Ukrainian law prohibits elections under martial law.
In a true social post on Wednesday, Trump called Zelensky a “no-election dictator.” The day before, at the Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, reporters asked Trump if he supported Russia’s demands on Ukraine to hold a new election to reach a peace deal.
Trump said: “Yeah, I’ll say when they want a seat at the table you’ll say you can say – Ukrainians don’t say you know No. Has it been a long time since you held the election?”
Holding elections can deprive many voters of rights, as millions of Ukrainian citizens of war, flee the country, and many others live in Russian-occupied territory. It has sex.
“To call Zelensky a dictator is like calling Winston Churchill a dictator as Britain postponed the election until the end of World War II,” says Georgetown, a study of democracy and dictatorships. Fatari Mogadam, a professor of university psychology, said in an email to politics. “Obviously, the term dictator does not apply to Zelensky, as it does not apply to Churchill.”
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said that “it is perfectly reasonable for the BBC to suspend elections during wartime, as Britain did during World War II,” and Zelenkie was in Ukraine’s He said he is a “democratically elected leader.”
Putin won his re-election in March for another six-year term in an election that the US National Security Council said was “clearly neither free nor fair.”
“Trump would be right to use the term dictator to describe Putin, who has been using false elections for a quarter of a century to maintain power,” Mogadam said.
Claim: Zelenskyy’s approval rate is 4%
This is inaccurate. Trump made these comments at a press conference Tuesday, but it was not clear what polls he was citing. Searches in the Google and Nexis News databases found no poll reports showing Zelenskyy with a 4% approval rating.
In the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll conducted between February 4 and 9, Zelenskyy had a trust rating of 57% of the 1,000 Ukrainians surveyed. This was down from 90% in May 2022, just after the Russian invasion, but from 52% in December 2024.
Some social media users, including X’s owner Elon Musk, have sought to discredit the vote by linking the Kyiv Institute of International Sociology to the US Institute of International Development. Social media posts provided no evidence of their claim that the votes were unreliable.
Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian news site, reported that the country’s major voting agencies have not issued polls that show recognition ratings during the war. The Sotsys Group, which published its approval rating, shows Zelenskyy with 16% approval. The polls are tied to the former chief political strategist of Petro Poroshenko, the fifth president of Ukraine, who was beaten by Zelensky in 2019, Ukrainianska Pravda said.
Claim: US spent $350 million to support Ukraine
This is inaccurate. Trump’s numbers almost double the amount that Congress has been allocated or available since the war began.
Ukraine Surveillance – The website of Special Inspector Atlantic Resolution, established by the US government to coordinate military aid to Ukraine in 2014, was 183 billion as of September 30th, when the US was able to support Ukraine He said he spent dollars.
Mark Kansian, senior defense and security advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the amount spent by the US differs depending on what is counted as “assistance to Ukraine,” but most estimates are 175 billion. It ranges from $185 bn.
“But no matter what you add, the total isn’t nearly $3500 billion,” Kangsian said.
The numbers Trump cited in terms of aid to Ukraine are inconsistent with data from the US government itself. The independent research institute also said that the aid sent from the US to Ukraine was less than $350 billion. According to the Kiel Institute for World Economic Research, the US had sent around $120 billion as of December.
Claim: Zelensky says the US doesn’t know where half of the money Ukraine went
In a February 2nd interview with the Associated Press, Zelenskyy said he only received a portion of the Ukrainian army.
Zelenskyy cited the total $177 billion or the $220 million spent by the US, saying Ukraine has not received that total of about $100 billion. The official amount that the US spent on Ukraine is $183 billion.
Zelenskyy didn’t say he was missing the rest of the money. Direct military support for Ukraine totaled around $70 billion. Although $175 million was allocated by Congress, much of it was spent in the US on arms makers and US military and government operations.
Claim: Zelensky “slept and couldn’t use” to meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent in Kiev last week.
The photos show that this is inaccurate. Trump told reporters Wednesday that Bescent was treated “pretty rude” when he visited Kiev on February 12 after Ukraine rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to give Ukraine a share of rare earth minerals. . Trump also said Zelensky was “slept and unavailable” to meet Bescent.
Trump’s statement contradicts news photos and videos from Bessent and Zelenskyy Meeting on Kyiv. Photos and a summary of the meeting can also be found on the Ukrainian President’s website.
On Thursday, US national security adviser Michael Waltz demanded that Zelensky return to negotiations with the United States over a mineral trade. Zelenskyy publicly rejected the demand for rare earths in the US. Ukrainian leaders have requested security assurances as part of their peace agreement.
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