'Nobody can force Ukraine to give up,' says top Ukrainian diplomat amid tensions with US

ISTANBUL

As US-Ukraine tensions soared on Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, "nobody can force Ukraine to give up."

“Ukraine withstood the most horrific military attack in Europe’s modern history and three years of total war,” Sybiha wrote on X, referring to Russia's war on Ukraine that started in February 2022.

“The Ukrainian people and their President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to give in to Putin’s pressure," he stressed. "Nobody can force Ukraine to give up. We will defend our right to exist.”

Sybiha’s remarks came in response to Trump’s recent statements, where he called on Ukraine to hold elections and criticized Zelenskyy’s leadership, referring to him as a “dictator without elections” and suggesting that he “move fast” or "he is not going to have a Country left."

Trump's post on Truth Social came hours after Zelenskyy accused him of living in a "space of disinformation."

The bitter exchange comes as Trump advances peace talks to end the war in Ukraine without European participation. Talks between US and Russian officials, the first since the war, were held in Riyadh on Tuesday.