Sir Keir Starmer has tonight compared Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to Winston Churchill and defended him from US president Donald Trump’s claims that he is ‘a dictator without elections.’
Trump’s extraordinary outburst came after Zelensky accused the US President of falling for Russian fake news, with Trump suggesting yesterday that Ukraine was to blame for Moscow’s illegal invasion of the country three years ago.
Since the US president’s comments, many have come out to bat for Zelensky, including Starmer, who spoke with the Ukrainian leader tonight and affirmed his support for him as the country’s ‘democratically elected leader’, according to Downing Street.
Number 10 added that Starmer also told Zelensky that it was ‘perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime, as the UK did during World War II.’
During his call with Zelensky, Number 10 said Starmer ‘stressed the need for everyone to work together’, and ‘reiterated his support for the US-led efforts to get a lasting peace that deterred Russia from any future aggression’.
Downing Street’s statement did not explicitly condemn Trump’s comments, ahead of a visit to the White House next week where set to speak with the American leader about his attempts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Writing on his platform Truth Social, Trump shared an extraordinary and length tirade, condemning both Zelensky and the billions in aid the Biden administration had given Ukraine during Russia’s bloody war on the country.
‘Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the US and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,’ Trump wrote.
Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) has tonight compared Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to Winston Churchill and defended him from US president Donald Trump
Zelensky has blasted the United States for ‘helping’ Vladimir Putin ‘to come out of isolation’
Donald Trump (pictured) launched an eviscerating attack on Volodymyr Zelensky on his platform Truth Social
Vladimir Putin earlier praised Trump for ‘changing his position’ when he ‘began to receive objective information’
‘I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…’ he posted.
He complained that the US was giving Kyiv more funds than European nations were, despite their proximity to the war, and said that Zelensky had played Joe Biden ‘like a fiddle’.
In what appeared to be a thinly-veiled threat, Trump went on to say that ‘Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.’
Trump, who has abandoned the US policy of isolating Moscow, said his administration is ‘successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.’
He claimed that ‘Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.’
Doubling down on earlier unfounded claims that Zelensky was only supported by four per cent of Ukrainians, Trump added that the President ‘refuses to have Elections’ and ‘is very low in Ukrainian Polls’.
Moscow will have welcomed Trump’s questioning of Zelensky’s legitimacy, including his suggestions yesterday that it had been ‘too long’ since Ukraine had held elections for him to have a seat at the negotiating table.
While he insisted this point was ‘not a demand from Russia’, the claim came straight out of Moscow’s playbook, and failed to mention that Russia’s recent election in 2024 was rigged, with Putin’s foes killed, jailed or exiled.
In the wake of the tirade, many heavily criticised Trump for his remarks.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Zelensky ‘is not a dictator. He is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion.’
But she added that Trump ‘is right that Europe needs to pull its weight – and that includes the UK.’
She added: ‘We need to get serious. The PM will have my support to increase defence spending – there is a fully funded plan to get to 2.5% sitting on his desk.
‘That should be the bare minimum. Starmer should get on with it, get on a plane to Washington and show some leadership. We cannot afford to get this wrong.’
Former British justice secretary David Gauke tonight compared the American president to AI.
Smoke rises in the sky over the city after a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 17, 2025. The attack came after U.S.-Russia talks ended in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian soldiers of Khartya brigade receive training on shooting drones down in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on February 18, 2025.
He said: ‘If you’d asked AI to write a piece of Russian propaganda in the style of Donald Trump, this is what you’d get.
‘Well done America, you’ve elected a Russian asset as your president.’
Former foreign secretary James Cleverly, meanwhile, said: ‘The UK and US must send the message that we don’t let tyrants win.’
Even American right-wingers have begun turning on Trump.
Last night, before the president made his bizarre claims, Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker told CNN when asked whether Putin can be trusted during negotiations: ‘No. Putin is a war criminal who should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.’
He added that the Russians will try to do ‘anything to their advantage’.
Responding to Trump’s claims, Zelensky referred to a poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which shows that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trust him.
He added that any attempt to replace him during the war would fail.
Zelensky won more than 73 per cent of the vote in Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election, which are widely considered to be democratic and fair.
While his mandate had been due to end last May, a vote was not held because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its bloody invasion in 2022.
Shortly after Trump shared the incendiary post, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: ‘Ukraine withstood the most horrific military attack in Europe’s modern history and three years of a total war.
‘The Ukrainian people and their President [Zelensky] refused to give in to Putin’s pressure.
‘Nobody can force Ukraine to give up. We will defend our right to exist.’
Zelensky said earlier today that while he has ‘great respect’ for Trump and the American people, the US President ‘unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,’ created by Moscow.
Vladimir Putin earlier praised Trump for ‘changing his position’ when he ‘began to receive objective information’, ostensibly from Kremlin mouthpieces at the talks on Tuesday and during last week’s phone call between the two leaders.
The Russian dictator welcomed Tuesday’s talks between Russian and American officials in Saudi Arabia, describing them as a ‘first step’ to restore relations with Washington.
‘I was briefed (on the talks). I rate them highly, there is a result,’ Putin said at a drone factory in Saint Petersburg, adding: ‘In my opinion, we made the first step to restore work in various areas of mutual interests’.
He said that securing a resolution to the conflict is a priority for Russia, but added that his country must build trust with the United States in order to achieve this.
‘It is impossible to solve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States,’ Putin said in the televised meeting.
While Trump earlier suggested a face-to-face meeting between Putin and himself could be held before the end of the month, the Russian President said he was not ready to say when talks might take place.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv earlier today, President Zelensky criticised Washington’s thawing of relations with Moscow and pushed back on a number of unfounded claims made by the US president at a press conference last night.
Zelensky said he ‘would like Trump’s team to be more truthful’ in response the US president’s striking claims – including the suggestion that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week.
The Ukrainian President disputed Trump’s claims that the US has given Ukraine $500billion, calling the suggestion that Kyiv pay this back with a mineral exploration deal ‘not a serious conversation.’
‘Look, we all want a victory, and we want Trump to win, and we want Ukraine to win, all of us to succeed,’ he said. ‘But there is nothing clear here… I am protecting Ukraine. I can’t sell it away. I can’t sell our state.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) spoke to reporters as he visited a drone factory in St Petersburg today
US and Russian delegations attending the bilateral meeting at the Diriyah Palace on Tuesday
Referring to yesterday’s US-Russia talks in Riyadh, Zelensky added: ‘I believe that the United States helped Putin to break out of years of isolation… All of this has no positive impact on Ukraine.’
Putin said in his comments today that Trump had told him that Ukraine will take part in future talks, adding that there was no need for a ‘hysterical’ reaction to yesterday’s meeting.
‘We are not imposing anything on anyone. We are ready, I have already said this a hundred times – if they want, please, let these negotiations take place. And we will be ready to return to the table for negotiations,’ he said. ‘No one is excluding Ukraine.’
Zelensky said the talks had come as a ‘surprise’ to Kyiv, with fears there and across Europe that Ukraine is being frozen out of negotiations which could result in it being forced by Washington to accept an unfavourable peace deal.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier praised Trump for ‘publicly and loudly’ blaming the conflict on moves to admit Kyiv into the NATO military alliance, saying ‘he is the first… and only Western leader’ to do so.
Speaking to reporters last night, President Trump took aim at Zelensky for raising concerns that his country had not been at the table for talks between Washington and Moscow on Tuesday.
‘I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today, I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,’ he said of Zelensky.
‘You should have ended it. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.’
After the meeting between US and Russian officials in Riyadh, Trump said he was ‘much more confident’ that a peace deal could be struck.
‘They were very good,’ he said. ‘Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.’
The stunning claim came as Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a blistering aerial attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight, striking a children’s clinic and kindergarten and leaving much of the city without power.
Responding to Trump’s comments today, Germany has emphasised that it was Putin who launched the Ukraine war.
‘No one but Putin started or wanted this war in the heart of Europe,’ said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a statement, adding that ‘we are working with all our strength to further strengthen Ukraine’.
When asked about Trump’s comments that Ukraine is responsible for the continuation of the war, a French government spokeswoman said that Paris did not understand the logic behind the US President’s remarks.
Chaos engulfed Odesa overnight as Russian launched a major bombing campaign against the city
Former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said that the White House has been spouting ‘fake news’ on Ukraine, and slammed Trump’s suggestion that Kyiv is to blame for the war as being one of the Kremlin’s ‘talking points’.
Jack Lopresti, another ex-Tory MP, who has now joined the army in Ukraine, said the US had been ‘taken for fools’ by Putin.
‘I don’t think [Putin] has any interest in peace whatsoever, he’s still building up his military, he’s upscaled his defence manufacturing and he’s just sitting back letting this all unfold,’ he told Sky News.
He added that where US leadership lacks, the UK is working ‘to get Europe on board and get them to ramp up their defensive and offensive capability.
‘We know what happens next, if Putin wins here he will not stop in Ukraine.’
