United States President Donald Trump has made a sequence of claims about Ukraine and its chief as he seeks to finish the nation’s three-year battle with Russia.
Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy soured publicly as Trump known as Zelenskyy a “dictator” and mentioned he “began” the battle with Russia, a declare PolitiFact rated pants-on-fire false. The disagreement has escalated after Zelenskyy accused Trump of repeating Russian misinformation.
Trump, who despatched a crew to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start negotiations on ending the battle that didn’t embrace Ukraine, described Zelenskyy as a “modestly profitable comic” who was solely good at enjoying former US President Joe Biden “like a fiddle”.
The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark. Right here, we fact-checked six of Trump’s claims about Zelenskyy and Ukraine:
Declare: Zelenskyy began the battle with Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has lengthy sought responsible Ukraine for the battle he began when he launched an invasion on February 24, 2022. Trump echoed that speaking level to reporters on Tuesday after Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine had not been invited to US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia to finish the battle.
“Right now I heard [from Ukraine], ‘Oh effectively, we weren’t invited.’ Properly, you’ve been there for 3 years. You need to have ended it three years – it is best to have by no means began it. You can have made a deal,” Trump mentioned.
The killing of an estimated 46,000 Ukrainian troopers and not less than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians within the battle is effectively documented.
Information protection, video footage and the United Nations documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in actual time. Putin introduced it as a “particular navy operation” at 6am in Moscow (03:00 GMT) on February 24, 2022.
“The aim of this operation is to guard individuals who for eight years now have been dealing with humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime,” Putin mentioned in a televised handle. A transcript of his speech used the Russian spelling of Ukraine’s capital. “To this finish, we are going to search to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine in addition to convey to trial those that perpetrated quite a few bloody crimes towards civilians, together with towards residents of the Russian Federation.”
Putin’s false rationalisations for the battle had been named PolitiFact’s Lie of the Yr in 2022.
Declare: Zelenskyy is a dictator
A professor who researches democracy and dictatorships mentioned this can be a mischaracterisation.
Zelenskyy was democratically elected in March 2019 to a five-year time period with greater than 73 p.c of the vote. He would have been up for re-election in March or April final 12 months. Nonetheless, Ukraine imposed martial regulation after Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian regulation prohibits elections beneath martial regulation.
Trump known as Zelenskyy “A Dictator with out Elections” in a Fact Social submit on Wednesday. At his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida the day earlier than, reporters requested Trump whether or not he supported Russia’s demand for Ukraine to carry new elections to achieve a peace deal.
Trump mentioned: “Yeah, I might say that, you realize, when they need a seat on the desk, you possibly can say, the individuals should – wouldn’t the individuals of Ukraine should say, like, you realize, ‘It’s been a very long time since we’ve had an election?’”
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian residents have been displaced by the battle or have fled the nation and plenty of others reside in Russian-occupied territory, so holding elections may disenfranchise many citizens.
“To name Zelensky a dictator is like calling Winston Churchill a dictator as a result of the UK postponed elections till after the tip of World Warfare Two,” Fathali Moghaddam, a Georgetown College psychology professor who researches democracy and dictatorships, mentioned in an electronic mail to PolitiFact. “Clearly, the time period dictator doesn’t apply to Zelenskyy, simply because it doesn’t apply to Churchill.”
A spokesperson for United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer advised the BBC it was “completely cheap to droop elections throughout wartime because the UK did throughout World Warfare II” and Zelenskyy is Ukraine’s “democratically elected chief”.
Putin received re-election to a different six-year time period in March in an election the US Nationwide Safety Council mentioned was “clearly not free nor honest”.
“Trump could be right to make use of the time period dictator to explain Putin, who has used pretend elections to stay in energy for 1 / 4 of a century,” Moghaddam mentioned.
Declare: Zelenskyy has a 4 p.c approval score
That is inaccurate. Trump made these feedback at a information convention on Tuesday, and it wasn’t clear what ballot he was citing. A search of Google and the Nexis information database discovered no studies of polls exhibiting Zelenskyy with a 4 p.c approval score.
In a Kyiv Worldwide Institute of Sociology ballot performed February 4-9, Zelenskyy had a belief score of 57 p.c amongst 1,000 Ukrainians surveyed. That’s down from 90 p.c in Might 2022 shortly after Russia’s invasion however up from 52 p.c in December 2024.
Some social media customers, together with X proprietor Elon Musk, sought to discredit the polling by linking the Kyiv Worldwide Institute of Sociology to the US Company for Worldwide Growth, which has been on the centre of distorted claims. The social media posts provided no proof for his or her declare that the polling is just not credible.
The Ukrainian information website Ukrainska Pravda reported the nation’s main polling companies haven’t revealed polls exhibiting approval rankings through the battle. One which has revealed approval rankings, the Sotsys Group, exhibits Zelenskyy with 16 p.c approval. That ballot, Ukrainska Pravda mentioned, is tied to the previous chief political strategist of Ukraine’s fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, who Zelenskyy beat in 2019.
Declare: The US has spent $350bn to assist Ukraine
That is inaccurate. Trump’s determine almost doubles the quantity that Congress has appropriated or made obtainable for the reason that battle started.
Ukraine Oversight – the web site of the particular inspector common for Operation Atlantic Resolve, which the US authorities created in 2014 to coordinate its navy assist to Ukraine – mentioned that as of September 30, the US had spent $183bn to assist Ukraine.
Mark Cancian, a senior defence and safety adviser on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research, mentioned the quantity the US has spent varies relying on what’s being counted as “assist to Ukraine” however most estimates are within the vary of $175bn to $185bn.
“It doesn’t matter what you add, nonetheless, the full doesn’t get near $350bn,” Cancian mentioned.
The numbers cited by Trump by way of assist to Ukraine contradict information from the US authorities itself. Impartial analysis institutes additionally mentioned the help despatched to Ukraine by the US was decrease than $350bn. In line with the Kiel Institute for the World Financial system, the US despatched about $120bn as of December.
Declare: Zelenskyy mentioned he doesn’t know the place half of the cash the US has given Ukraine went
In a February 2 interview with The Related Press, Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine’s navy has obtained solely a portion of the billions in US assist earmarked for Ukraine’s defence towards Russia.
Zelenskyy cited a complete of $177bn or $200bn spent by the US and mentioned Ukraine had not obtained about $100bn of that complete. The official quantity spent by the US on Ukraine is $183bn.
Zelenskyy wasn’t saying that the remainder of the cash was lacking. Direct navy help to Ukraine totalled about $70bn. Of $175bn appropriated by Congress, a lot of it was spent within the US on weapons producers and US navy and authorities operations.
Declare: Zelenskyy was ‘sleeping and unavailable’ to satisfy Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent final week in Kyiv
Pictures present that is inaccurate. Trump advised reporters on Wednesday on board Air Pressure One which Bessent was handled “relatively rudely” when he visited Kyiv on February 12 as a result of Ukraine rejected a Trump administration proposal to provide the US a share of Ukraine’s uncommon earth minerals. Trump additionally mentioned Zelenskyy was “sleeping and unavailable” to satisfy Bessent.
Trump’s assertion is contradicted by information pictures and movies of Bessent and Zelenskyy assembly in Kyiv. Pictures and a recap of the assembly are additionally on the Ukrainian president’s web site.
On Thursday, US Nationwide Safety Adviser Michael Waltz demanded that Zelenskyy return to negotiations over the minerals deal with the US. Zelenskyy has publicly rejected the US uncommon earths demand. The Ukrainian chief has been demanding safety ensures as a part of any peace deal.
