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Donald Trump has accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of refusing to strike a deal to end the war with Russia and casting “aspersions” against him as he increased his attacks on Kyiv ahead of the US election.
Speaking at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump launched one of his most scathing attacks of the Ukraine’s leader, who on Thursday is set to meet Joe Biden, the US president, and vice-president Kamala Harris — Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy,” Trump told the audience. “There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated.”
Trump has repeatedly said in recent months that if he is elected to a second term he will immediately seek a settlement between Moscow and Kyiv, but he has boosted that message on the campaign trail in recent days.
“We’re stuck in that war unless I’m president,” he said at a separate campaign event in Georgia on Tuesday. “I’ll get it done, I’ll get it negotiated, I’ll get out. We’ve got to get out.”
Trump appears to have been angered by Zelenskyy’s comments at the start of his visit to the US in which he questioned the former president’s ability to quickly broker an agreement.
Trump said: “The president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president.”
Zelenskyy’s visit to the US was intended as a pitch to secure more support that would put Kyiv in a better position to settle the conflict. But while he was expected to present that plan to Biden and Harris on Thursday, there is no meeting planned with Trump.
In addition to Trump’s criticism of Zelensky for refusing to strike a peace deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Republicans have been upset by the Ukrainian president’s visit to an ammunition factory in the swing state of Pennsylvania earlier in the week.
Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, called for the resignation of Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s envoy to Washington.
“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” he wrote in a letter to Zelenskyy.
“This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country,” he added.
Ukraine’s embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden on Wednesday said the US would announce steps to accelerate lethal assistance for Ukraine but did not provide further details.
Zelenskyy’s plan calls on Washington to provide binding security guarantees akin to Nato membership, permission for Kyiv to strike deep inside of Russia and more and faster military assistance.
Diplomats familiar with the plan say it amounts to what Kyiv thinks it would need to be able to declare victory in its fight against Russia and create conditions for future negotiations with Moscow.
But despite intense lobbying from the UK and many of Ukraine’s western allies, the US has continued to resist Kyiv’s pleas to allow it to use western weapons to strike deeper inside Russia.
On the campaign trail, Harris has attacked Trump for his willingness to abandon Ukraine to the benefit of Putin, who launched his invasion in February 2022.
Trump on Wednesday criticised Biden and Harris for leaving the US “locked in” to the conflict through the administration’s decisions.
“Ukraine is gone. It’s not Ukraine any more,” he said. “You can never replace those cities and towns, and you can never replace the dead people, so many dead people. Any deal, even the worst deal, would have been better than what we have right now.”
