Donald Trump‘s attitude toward Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky has grown increasingly hostile in recent days, sparking concerns Washington may force Kyiv into a crippling capitulation to Moscow.
Earlier this week, Trump dispatched his Secretary of State Marco Rubio to meet Russian delegates in Saudi Arabia to begin ceasefire negotiations in the absence of any Ukrainian representatives.
His Treasury Secretary last week tried to lock Kyiv into a resources-for-security contract that was reportedly more exploitative than the conditions imposed on Germany by Allied powers following the conclusion of World War I.
And now Washington is reportedly refusing to sponsor a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbour on the three-year anniversary of war next week.
There is little doubt that Trump sees the conflict primarily through the lens of American domestic politics and as a distraction from the central focus of his foreign policy agenda – China.
He has framed US aid to Kyiv as a waste of taxpayer money and seems keen to curry favour with the Kremlin, perhaps to facilitate future trade and energy deals with Moscow or disrupt its troubling partnership with Beijing.
But the Trump administration’s increasingly dismissive behaviour toward Kyiv amid ceasefire negotiations has left many wondering whether the leader of the free world harbours a personal disdain toward Ukraine.
Trump, who today celebrates one month back in the White House after being inaugurated for his second term, once described Ukraine as ‘a corrupt country, full of terrible people’, according to his own former envoy to Kyiv.
And his dislike for Zelensky in particular was highlighted yesterday when he launched a scathing attack on his Ukrainian counterpart, labelling him a ‘dictator without elections’ and blaming him for starting the conflict with Russia.
US President Donald Trump appears to have little interest in striking a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal that is favourable for Kyiv
Trump has expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin (left), while his dislike for Volodymyr Zelensky (right) was highlighted yesterday when he launched a scathing attack on his Ukrainian counterpart
Ukrainian forces firing a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at an undisclosed location near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region
As one American diplomat recently told the Economist, Trump ‘appears to want to get rid of Mr Zelensky, whom he has never liked and who he thinks is difficult.’
Trump’s frustrations with Ukraine can be traced back to the early days of his political career when Paul Manafort – the former chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign – became entangled in a Ukrainian corruption scandal.
Prior to joining Trump’s operation, Manafort had worked closely with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who famously backed out of signing an association agreement with the European Union in 2013 under pressure from the Kremlin.
The move triggered the infamous Euromaidan protests in Ukraine which ultimately saw Yanukovych axed from his post.
Amid the wave of pro-European demonstrations, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatist movements waging war in Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region – the prelude to full-scale invasion in February 2022.
But after Yanukovych fled to Moscow, Ukrainian activists discovered handwritten documents in the former president’s party headquarters that allegedly showed millions in undisclosed payments from his government to Manafort, alongside various other journalists, Ukrainian media outlets and lawmakers.
Trump and his allies have long claimed the so-called ‘Black Ledger’ was nothing more than a ruse formulated by the Democratic party to discredit his campaign.
But the revelation led to Manafort’s resignation from Trump’s campaign and he was later charged with several counts of money laundering and tax evasion.
The Black Ledger was never used as evidence, but it remains in Ukraine and is treated as a classified document, according to Politico.
Then in 2019 – three years into Trump’s first presidential term – the US President shared a now infamous phone call with Zelensky, who at the time had just taken a landslide victory in his own presidential election against Yanukovych’s successor, Petro Poroshenko.
This call, described as a ‘perfect’ interaction by Trump at the time, ultimately led to the US President’s first impeachment.
US President Donald Trump, listens to a question during a brief press conference in Mar-a-Lago, February 18, 2025
Former US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to press on February 19, 2025
Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to open an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was receiving tens of thousands of dollars in monthly payments from Burisma – a large Ukrainian gas company that was under investigation for corruption.
Trump accused the elder Biden – who at the time was Vice President under Barack Obama – of trying to prevent Ukrainian authorities from investigating his son’s involvement in alleged corruption by forcing the dismissal of Kyiv’s top prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
Biden openly said he’d threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired – though this was done in coordination with the European Union amid claims the prosecutor was himself blocking other corruption investigations.
During the phone call with Zelensky, Trump urged his opposite number to ‘get to the bottom of it and figure it out’, and subsequently sent his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to exert pressure on officials in Kyiv.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration chose to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid earmarked for supporting Zelensky’s forces in their fight against Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas.
The suspicious timing triggered allegations that Trump was trying to leverage Zelensky into a quid pro quo – continued military aid in exchange for a commitment to investigate alleged corruption on behalf of the Biden family.
The Ukrainian President never carried out Trump’s request, and the claims Trump had tried to force Kyiv into investigating the Biden family led to his impeachment.
Trump was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing – but the impeachment reportedly deepened his personal animosity toward Zelensky and cemented his view of Ukraine as untrustworthy.
‘Trump hates Ukraine,’ Lev Parnas, a Soviet-born US businessman who was once a fixer in Ukraine for Trump’s lawyer Giuliani, told Politico last year.
‘He and people around him believe that Ukraine was the cause of all Trump’s problems.’
The US President also long held the belief that it was Ukrainian hackers, not Russia, who were responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee servers in 2015 and 2016.
His first administration was dogged by claims his victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was down to Russian election interference.
In this file photo taken on Monday, July 16, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin
Zelensky is pictured with his wife during presidential elections in 2019
As U.S. and Russian officials met to discuss the future of Ukraine, activists with Munich against Hate and other global organisations called out European voters to mobilise against the policies of Trump and Putin
Now, Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials are being admonished by senior members of Trump’s administration for pushing back on the US President’s outlandish claims.
Earlier this week Zelensky suggested Trump had been captured by ‘Russian disinformation’ following the Republican’s stinging and inaccurate remarks over the Ukrainian leader’s popularity at home.
Hours later, US Vice President J.D. Vance warned Zelensky against issuing more statements, directed at Trump, saying that ‘badmouthing’ his American counterpart in public would only backfire.
‘The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media… everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,’ said Vance during an exclusive interview with MailOnline in his West Wing office.
Vance went on to say Zelensky had been getting ‘bad advice’ on how to deal with the new administration and for the past three years had been told he could do nothing wrong.
