The press conference with Keith Kellogg and the Ukrainian president was called off in Kyiv on Thursday, just one day after Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and criticised his leadership.
A press conference featuring US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was cancelled Thursday at the request of the US delegation, according to officials in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy and retired US General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, were supposed to speak to the press after their meeting in the Ukrainian capital.
However, the event has been called off, the Ukrainian president’s spokesperson Serhii Nikiforov said. The US delegation has not made comment at this time.
Kellogg’s trip to Kyiv coincided with a recent exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy, which escalated to Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator,” casting further doubt on the future of Washington’s support for Ukraine amidst the ongoing Russian invasion of the eastern European country.
“I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and millions have unnecessarily died,” Trump says in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
“Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” he added.
Trump’s harsh words came in response to an earlier statement by Zelenskyy, who said that the US president was living in Russia’s “disinformation space,” following Trump’s allegations that Zelenskyy’s role as president was illegitimate due to no elections in Ukraine.
Ukraine was scheduled to hold a presidential election in March or April 2024, concluding Zelenskyy’s first five-year term. The vote was postponed as the country’s constitution does not permit elections under martial law, which was declared on 24 February 2022, the day when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin repeatedly sought to use the delay to portray Zelenskyy as “illegitimate,” a claim rejected by Kyiv as a distortion of the constitution.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said that he is open to discussing elections in Ukraine, but this is not something that his compatriots want due to concerns that lifting martial law could weaken the country’s defence.
“I am focusing on the survival of our country. I’ve been doing this throughout my term,” he said.
Meanwhile, a number of European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, came to Zelenskyy’s defence, stating he was democratically elected.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, who also showed his support for the leadership in Kyiv, are expected to head to the White House early next week to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.
