European Commission says Zelenskyy 'fairly' elected leader

GENEVA

European Commission spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaecker on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump's labeling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "dictator," saying Zelenskyy is a "fairly" elected leader.

"We have a fairly straightforward and clear position on this. President Zelensky was legitimately elected in free, fair, and democratic elections," De Keersmaecker said in response to a question during a daily press briefing in Brussels.

"Ukraine is a democracy; (President Vladimir) Putin's Russia is not," he told reporters.

Trump on Wednesday called the Ukrainian leader a "dictator without elections" and warned that he "better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left."

He posted on his social media platform Truth Social hours after Zelenskyy hit back at his suggestion that Kyiv "should have never started" the war, saying the US president was living in a Russian "space of disinformation."

On Trump’s US contributed more than the EU to Ukraine remarks, the spokesperson said, "The European Union has contributed quite a lot from the beginning to support our Ukrainian friends, both in terms of financial support and military support."