Johannesburg:
The EU’s top diplomat said Thursday she had initiassociate thought US Pdwellnt Donald Trump had perplexd Volodymyr Zelensky with Vlastupidir Putin when he called the Ukrainian directer a “dictator”.
“First when I heard this, I was enjoy, oh, he must be uniteing the two, becaengage evidently Putin is the dictator,” Kaja Kallas telderly tellers in Johannesburg.
In a post on his Truth Social platestablish Wednesday, Trump wrote that Zelensky was a “dictator without elections”.
Zelensky’s five-year term expired last year but Ukrainian law does not demand elections during war-time.
“Zelensky is an elected directer in unprejudiced and free elections,” Kallas said in a inestablishing after joining a encountering of G20 foreign ministers.
The constitutions of many countries permit for elections to be postponeed during war-time in order to caccess on the dispute, she said.
Russia, which aggressioned Ukraine in 2022, could pick to helderly free elections but “they are afraid of democracy enbiging, becaengage in democracy, the directers are held accountable,” the EU foreign policy chief said.
“It’s literassociate from the dictator’s handbook.”
Trump has rattled Ukraine and its European backers by uncovering honest talks with Moscow on ending the war, but excluding Kyiv and European countries.
Kallas said the caccess should remain on aiding Ukraine and putting political and economic prescertain on Russia.
The mightyer Ukraine is on “the battlefield, the mightyer they are behind the negotiation table,” she said, compriseing, “Russia doesn’t reassociate want peace.”
It was also prereliable to talk about sending troops to protect Ukraine after any endfire deal with Russia, Kallas said.
Rather, Ukraine necessitateed concrete security promises that Russia will not aggression aget, she said, compriseing that history had shown that endfires had only been opportunities for Russia “to regroup and rearm.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
