WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump leveled sharp criticism Tuesday at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the war with Russia.

Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said the Ukrainian leader "should have never started" the war, criticizing Zelenskyy after he expressed concern that Ukraine was not included in talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia.

"But today I heard, 'oh, well, we weren't invited.’ Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," he said.

❝You should have never started it. You could have made a deal❞

❝We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine. That's not a Russia thing❞

US President Trump sharply criticizes Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, accusing him of starting the war and questioning… pic.twitter.com/5EbKy2W0v5

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) February 19, 2025

Trump reiterated that "it's a senseless war. It should have never happened. Would have never happened if I was president. And it's a shame to see."

Stating that he likes Zelenskyy personally, Trump said his leadership however has "allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States.”

“Look, we had a president who was grossly incompetent. He had no idea what he was doing. He said some very stupid things, like going in for portions and all those things. He made a lot of bad statements, but he's grossly incompetent. And I think everyone knew that,” referring to former President Joe Biden.

In response to a question on whether he would support an election in Ukraine, Trump said there has not been an election under the Ukrainian president since the war.

"We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he's down at a 4% approval rating, and where a country has been blown to smithereens, you got most of the cities are laying on their sides," said Trump.

Ukrainian cities 'look like Gaza'

"You know, when they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to, wouldn't the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, it's been a long time since we've had an election. That's not a Russia thing. That's something coming from me and coming from many other countries also," he said. "Ukraine is being just, just wiped out."

"Look at what's happening to the cities. There's not even a building standing. It's massive. You talk about Gaza, I mean, it's literally, these cities look like Gaza. Actually, many have, percentage wise, more buildings knocked down than in Gaza. So, you know, people are tired of it," he added.

Russia reportedly said it wants to force Ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal.

Trump also commented on the talks in Riyadh, saying he has emerged "much more confident" that a peace deal can be struck to end the war on Ukraine after an initial round of talks between senior US and Russian officials concluded there.

The president described the discussions, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials, as "very good," saying he believes the Kremlin "wants to stop the savage barbarianism" of the war.

The comments came after US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia earlier in the day for the first high-level talks since Russia began its war on Ukraine in February 2022. The talks concluded with the delegations agreeing to hold additional rounds of discussions aimed at ending the war and improving bilateral ties.

Earlier Tuesday, Zelenskyy voiced dissatisfaction over Kyiv's lack of inclusion in the talks, calling it "a surprise to us. We learned about it from the media."

Speaking alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, he emphasized the need for the European Union, Türkiye, the UK and the US to be involved in negotiations to secure guarantees for the Russia-Ukraine war.

He underscored the importance of ensuring that the war concludes with a reliable and lasting peace.

“If these negotiations are fair, and if Ukraine, the US and Europe are at the table, these guarantees will be developed with the participation of all these countries. Of course, Türkiye is among them," he said.

Europe's desire to deploy troops to Ukraine

Trump further strongly supported the possibility that European countries deploy troops to Ukraine as part of any prospective deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

"If they want to do that, that's great. I'm all for it. If they want to do that, I think that'd be fine," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate. "If we have a peace deal, I think having troops over there, from the standpoint of Europe, we won't have to put any over there because we're very far away, but having troops over there would be fine. I would not object to it at all."

Transparency of US aid to Ukraine

Trump further claimed that Zelenskyy "said last week that he doesn't know where half of the money is that we gave him. Well, we gave them, I believe, $350 billion, but let's say it's something less than that. But it's, it's a lot."

He was likely referring to an interview the Ukrainian president gave to The Associated Press, which was published on Feb. 2.

"When I hear, and I heard before, and today we hear from the United States of America that America gave Ukraine hundreds of billions, 177, to be more precise. That's what the exact figure sounded like, which was supported or voted by the Congress, etc. Look, as the president of a warring country, I will tell you that we received just over 75," he said, according to a clip of the interview that has English-language captions.

"That is, 100 billion of these 177 billion, or 200, some people even say, we have never received. And this is important, because we are talking about specific things," he said.

Congress has allocated some $175 billion to aid Ukraine's war effort, but much of that sum goes towards domestic and other spending outside of Ukraine. A summary of the spending compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank indicates that of the total sum, roughly $106 billion went directly to Ukraine.