"This guy doesn’t want Peace as long as he has America’s backing," Trump says about Zelenskyy

'America will not put up with it for much longer'

The rift between Washington and Kyiv over a potential ceasefire in the war with Russia deepened on Monday as Donald Trump expressed new outrage at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for saying that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”.

In a post to social media on Monday, Trump posted a link to a news story outlining Zelenskyy’s comments and said: “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!”

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US,” Trump continued.

“Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” he said. 

The exchange followed a French proposal for a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine, as European efforts to bolster support for Kyiv accelerate in the face of uncertain US backing.  

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Monday: “Such a truce – on air, sea and energy infrastructure – would allow us to determine whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith” and gauge his attitude to “real peace negotiations”.

Barrot said: Never has the risk of a war in Europe, in the EU, been so high … The threat keeps getting closer to us, the frontline keeps getting closer to us.”

The European leaders have rallied around Ukraine. 

Zelenskyy has said : “I think our relationship (with the US) will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship.”

Those remarks followed a blow-up in the Oval Office. 

President Zelenskyy also said on Monday that Ukraine must pursue “substantive” diplomacy to swiftly end the three-year war with Russia, expressing hope for continued US support in achieving peace.

"It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

”We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope for U.S. support on the path to peace. 

Peace is needed as soon as possible.”