Donald Trump has criticised Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron for doing “nothing” to stop the war in Ukraine in a fresh attack on European leaders.
Ahead of a visit of the French President and British Prime Minister next week, Mr Trump said: “They didn’t do anything either [to end the war]. The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.”
He added: “Macron is a friend of mine, and I’ve met with the Prime Minister, he’s a very nice guy… [but] nobody’s done anything.”
Mr Trump also said that he was “sick” of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming he had made it “hard” to strike a deal with Russia to end the conflict.
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The President’s comments come amid a growing rift between Washington and Europe over the future of the war.
Earlier on Friday, reports suggested that Vladimir Putin will declare “victory” over Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war he launched.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, also alleged that the Russian president may claim “victory” over the NATO military alliance.
Putin launched his invasion on February 24, 2022, and expected his troops to be welcomed in Ukraine as liberators.
His plan was to seize the capital, Kyiv, within weeks, and topple Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, to impose a pro-Moscow regime.
But military experts say his invasion has significantly failed as his army was forced to retreat from Kyiv and has been seizing more territory very slowly in eastern Ukraine, while suffering heavy losses.
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Donald Trump has torn up America’s full-hearted support for Ukraine as he appears to be seeking to strike a swift peace deal with Putin, which could benefit Russia and the US, possibly at the expense of Ukraine.
Trump’s stance’s may have emboldened Putin to try to claim victory.
“Russia is preparing to declare an alleged ‘victory’ in the war against Ukraine by the ‘round date’ – 24 February 2025, the third anniversary of the beginning of the full-scale war,’ said the GUR agency.
“Moreover, these plans may also include a ‘Russian victory over NATO’, as Muscovite propaganda has long described the war against Ukraine as a war with the Alliance.”
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The French president has warned Trump not to be “weak” as he tries to move towards a peace deal with Putin.
The US administration has stunned, and appalled, many European capitals in its approach to peace talks, largely excluding Ukraine and Europe.
Trump has also fired off an extraordinary tirade against Volodymyr Zelensky, branding him a “dictator”, while seemingly trying to build ties with Putin who is widely seen to have remained Russian president due to rigged elections.
He has also claimed that Mr Zelensky is deeply unpopular in Ukraine, which flies in the face of opinion polls.
Trump’s outburst led Ukraine’s leader to say he had been pulled into a “disinformation” space, where he was effectively repeating Kremlin propaganda.
But the US president has doubled down on his criticism.
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Sir Keir has defended Ukraine’s president, stressing that he was democratically elected.
Trump’s Ukraine war envoy, retired general Keith Kellogg, visited Kyiv on Thursday for talks with Mr Zelensky, but a planned press conference was suddenly scrapped, reportedly by the American side.
The move sparked claims that Kellogg is being sidelined by Washington, with other key figures including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia, driving the peace plan.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz criticised Mr Zelensky’s disinformation remark and said the Ukrainian president needed to come back to the table and discuss a previously floated deal to give the US access to Ukraine’s minerals resources, reportedly to a value of $500 billion.
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