On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “dictator.” In response, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the Ukrainian leader. It was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War II,” according to Downing Street, and Zelenskyy was a “democratically elected leader.”
Zelenskyy and Trump scuffled, with the Ukrainian leader accusing Trump of “living in a disinformation space” controlled by Moscow after Trump advanced US-Russian negotiations in Saudi Arabia that excluded Kyiv.
In May 2024, Zelenskyy’s five-year tenure was set to expire. However, with Ukraine’s declaration of martial law in reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, elections have been halted.
Several European politicians criticised Trump’s remarks, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who wrote on X that “denying President Zelenskyy democratic legitimacy is dangerous and wrong. Under the provisions of the Ukrainian constitution and electoral regulations, regular elections cannot be held during a conflict. Nobody need to assert differently,” Scholz stated.
Trump’s use of the word “dictator” was also deemed “incorrect” by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the remarks as “absurd.” Baerbock told public channel ZDF, “If you look at the real world instead of just tweeting, you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Belarus, people in Russia.
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