US President Donald Trump has said French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of their visits to the White House next week.
Trump also said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had “no cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK, France and other allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapons and other aid.
On Monday, European leaders held a crisis summit in Paris on Ukraine – a day before US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, and amid fears that Ukraine and Europe could be excluded from peace negotiations.
Despite his criticism of Macron and Sir Keir, Trump in his interview with Fox News also praised the European leaders. He said he considered Macron to be a “friend”, and called the British prime minister a “very nice guy”.
Macron is expected to visit Washington DC on Monday, while Sir Keir will be there on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the British prime minister said he was “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.
The has contacted the PM’s office for comment.
While European leaders have ruled out negotiating with Russia, they have met regularly to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia.
Many European nations have also signed agreements to support and provide aid to Ukraine.
In January, Sir Keir signed a “landmark” pact, telling Zelensky: “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”
Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said he had had “extensive and positive” discussions with Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.
Kellogg praised Zelensky as a “courageous leader” – only days after Trump referred to him as a “dictator”.
In recent days Zelensky has held phone calls with various global leaders, who have expressed their commitment to ensuring Ukraine is involved in peace talks.
Trump, in his Fox interview on Friday, said Russia and Ukraine would not want to begin peace talks without his own personal involvement.
He also continued to criticise Zelensky, saying: “I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated.
“I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.”
And after criticising Zelensky over the past week – using talking points that analysts say sound more like they originate in Moscow than Washington DC – Trump offered that “of course” he would take a phone call from Ukraine’s president.
He insisted several times that Zelensky was to blame for failing to prevent the war, saying that Russia could have been “talked out” of invading Ukraine.
Asked about Ukraine’s absence at peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Trump said that Russia “found it impossible to make a deal with Zelensky”.
He said he believed that Russia sincerely wanted a deal to end the war, but that President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have to make a deal”.
US Vice-President JD Vance later hit back at critics who said that Trump’s stance on Russia amounted to “appeasement”.
“We are negotiating to end the conflict. It is ‘appeasement’ only if you think the Ukrainians have a credible pathway to victory. They don’t, so it’s not,” he said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and Washington appeared to be inching closer to signing a deal that would give the US rights to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals.
Trump has styled this as a way for Ukraine to repay the US for its past military support. On Friday, he told reporters that the US and Ukraine were “pretty close” to signing the deal, adding that the US would “get our money back”.
In a video address late on Friday, Zelensky said Ukrainian and US teams were working on a draft agreement, which “can add value to our relations”. But he stressed that “what matters most is getting the details right”.
The Ukrainian president had rejected the initial US proposal made several days ago, saying he “cannot sell our state”.
White House Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Friday that Zelensky was “going to sign that deal”.
