US president Donald Trump is getting more frustrated with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, seeing him as a “bad guy” in the Russia-Ukraine war who is pushing the world closer to nuclear fallout.
Reports quoted Trump advisors saying the president is “exasperated” with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky but “reserves special animosity” for the Ukrainian leader, whom he has publicly criticised on several occasions.
While he understands why Ukraine wants to keep fighting, his stance toward Zelensky is notably harsher than towards Putin, the report said.
The US president is reportedly more deferential to his Russian counterpart and previously believed that their “very, very good relationship” would help end the conflict.
On Wednesday, the two leaders spent nearly 75 minutes on a phone conversation in which Trump said they discussed Ukraine’s recent attack on Russian airbases that reportedly host strategic aircraft. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Zelensky accused Russia of trying to "buy time for itself to continue killing" and called for the West to put "maximum sanctions" and "pressure" on Moscow, after Russia had repeatedly rejected calls for a full and unconditional ceasefire.
A total of five people were killed in Pryluky, a city in central Ukraine, including victims from three generations of the same family. Fighting and aerial attacks have escalated in recent weeks, even as the sides have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul that they said are aimed at finding an end to the three-year war.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Zelensky, who has been at the crossroads with US President Donald Trump, rejected the Russian proposal on Wednesday, saying, “This is an ultimatum, and it will not be taken seriously by the Ukrainian side… This memorandum is a misunderstanding.”
Russia’s lead negotiator at the Istanbul talks, Vladimir Medinsky, defended the memorandum, describing it as an opportunity to end the conflict.
“This is not an ultimatum. It’s a proposal that will truly allow for achieving real peace — or at least a ceasefire — and make a huge step towards achieving long-term peace,” he said.
Furthermore, Putin has warned that those responsible for the sabotage attempts will be punished and added that the Kremlin sees Kyiv’s direct role in the attacks.
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