Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency is over, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has told RT. Zelensky’s five-year term in office concluded in May 2024, but he has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. According to Ritter, Washington is “fed up” with Zelensky, who US President Donald Trump recently labeled a “dictator without elections,” and is moving to unseat him.
Ritter’s words come on the heels of a meeting in the White House between Zelensky, Trump, and US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday, in which a heated exchange took place after Trump told the Ukrainian leader that he would have to negotiate peace with Russia. Zelensky argued that Moscow cannot be trusted and insisted that the US continue supporting Kiev. Trump said Zelensky is “in no position to dictate” to the US, accusing him of being ungrateful for America’s substantial aid and questioning his willingness to bring about an end to the conflict with Russia.
According to Ritter, the meeting was a “setup” to discredit Zelensky and “confront him with the inconsistencies of his position.”
“Zelensky is not a democratically elected president… This was a deliberate setup by the president of the US. The Trump administration is fed up with Zelensky,” he said, arguing that he brought it upon himself by openly antagonizing Trump.
This is the end of Zelensky’s presidency. He will not recover from this. Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible.
According to Ritter, the relationship between Trump and Zelensky is now “fundamentally broken.” However, unlike Ukraine, he said, Russia has never “lost the discipline” in contacts with the US and disrupted peace efforts, despite “some fundamental disagreements” on how to resolve the conflict.
“Zelensky was the greatest impediment to the US and Russia to achieve a peace deal... He had to be removed, and now he has been removed,” Ritter explained. He went on to say that while Zelensky’s removal may be “the beginning of the political collapse of Ukraine,” it might not necessarily be a bad thing in terms of peace because “the war is all but over at this point.”
Zelensky has so far dismissed calls to step down. In an interview with Fox News following the meeting with Trump and responding to a call from US Senator Lindsey Graham “to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with,” Zelensky said he won’t do so unless asked by the Ukrainian people.
Zelensky should apologize for ‘fiasco’ with Trump – Rubio
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Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “should apologize” for turning his meeting with US President Donald Trump into a “fiasco,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Rubio slammed Zelensky for “wasting” everyone’s time with his attitude and questioned his true intentions regarding the conflict with Russia.
Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance met earlier on Friday in the White House Oval Office for what was expected to be the formal signing of a minerals agreement between Washington and Kiev. However, the meeting descended into a verbal spat after Trump told Zelensky that he would have to negotiate peace with Russia. Zelensky argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted and insisted that the US should continue supporting his country, prompting Trump to accuse him of ungratefulness and an unwillingness to negotiate an end to the conflict.
“[Zelensky] should apologize for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did… for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became,” Rubio said, commenting on the meeting.
“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” he added, criticizing the Ukrainian leader for the talks “going off the rails.” Rubio also accused Zelensky of sticking to his animosity towards Putin instead of focusing on the only viable path towards peace, which he said was getting Russia to the negotiation table.
“Attacking Putin, calling him names… and maximalist demands about Russia having to pay for the reconstruction – when you start talking about that aggressively, you’re not going to get people to the table,” he stated, noting that Zelensky’s attitude could be viewed as “active open undermining” of efforts to bring about the end of the conflict.
Following the meeting, Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich wrote on X that the Ukrainian delegation was “begging” for a reset, but was asked to leave the White House grounds and only return when Zelensky was “ready for peace.”
In an interview on Fox News shortly after the meeting, Zelensky admitted it did not go well, but signaled he did not plan to apologize to the US leader. He claimed he thought “we have to be very open and very honest” in bilateral interaction, blamed some of the statements he made on being lost in translation, but ultimately said he was “unsure” that he did something “bad” to offend Trump.
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