Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky took another shot at President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance for their ‘altered reality’ surrounding the events that triggered the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
‘It seems to me that the Vice President is somehow justifying Putin’s actions,’ Zelensky said during an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Zelensky’s comment is the latest of criticisms he had for the vice president after he was scolded by both Trump and Vance in the Oval Office for his belligerent behavior despite significant military aid and funding from the United States.
The Ukrainian president insisted that Ukraine was the ‘victim’ of the war, and that Putin was the aggressor.
‘I tried to explain, “You can’t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim,”‘ he said.
He accused Trump and Vance of parroting talking points from Russia in their ongoing effort to end the war.
‘It’s a shift in tone, a shift in reality, really yes, a shift in reality, and I don’t want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me,’ Zelensky said.
Zelensky’s comments on 60 Minutes reflect little change in his attitude with Trump and Vance since their dramatic meeting in the Oval Office in February.
Trump blamed former President Joe Biden on Monday for allowing the war between Russia and Ukraine start in the first place.
‘I had nothing to do with this war, but am working diligently to get the death and destruction to stop,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
‘President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin,’ he continued. ‘There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to stop, and fast. So sad!’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine
US President Donald Trump, alongside Vice President JD Vance (C) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) in the Oval Office
Vance’s office did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
Hostilities continue in Ukraine as a Russian cluster bomb hit civilians gathering for a church service on Palm Sunday, according to the Ukrainians.
Trump reacted to the attacks while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, and revealed that he believed the attack to be a ‘mistake’ by the Russians.
‘I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,’ he said.
Gen. Keith Kellogg, the president’s Ukrainian envoy, was more forceful in condemning the attack.
‘Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,’ he said in a statement on Sunday. ‘There are scores of civilian dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war.’
Vance clashed with Zelensky during the Oval Office meeting in which he defended President Trump’s attempt to end the war using diplomacy with Russia.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the US military’s Pituffik Space Base in Greenland
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
‘Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,’ Vance said after Zelensky repeatedly interrupted and disputed statements made by Trump about the war.
Vance publicly criticized Zelensky for failing to thank the American people and Trump for trying to end the war.
‘Just say thank you,’ Vance said. ‘Accept that there are disagreements and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.’
Vance also criticized Zelensky after the meeting in an interview with DailyMail.com, suggesting that he was getting bad advice.
‘The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media … everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,’ he said.
