Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “strong” ties with Washington on Thursday (February 21, 2025), as he met U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv a day after Donald Trump branded the Ukrainian leader a “dictator.”

Tensions between Mr. Zelenskyy and Mr. Trump over the U.S. President’s outreach to Moscow have exploded this week in escalating barbs traded in press conferences and on social media.

The United States is Ukraine’s most important financial and military backer, but the U.S. president has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by opening talks with Moscow they fear could end the war on terms that reward Vladimir Putin.

The spat has turned personal with Mr. Trump falsely stating Mr. Zelenskyy is hugely unpopular among his own people and the Ukrainian leader in turn saying Mr. Trump had succumbed to Russian “disinformation”.

Amid the war of words, Mr. Zelenskyy said Thursday he had held a “productive meeting” with Mr. Kellogg.

“We had a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on social media after the meeting.

“Strong Ukraine-U.S. relations benefit the entire world,” he added.

However, there was no joint press conference or statements after the discussions, as would typically be expected be for a visiting foreign envoy.

In the United States, some of Mr. Trump’s team doubled down on their attacks on Mr. Zelenskyy.

In a post on his X social media site, Elon Musk said Mr. Zelenskyy was “despised by the people of Ukraine.”

Mr. Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News that Kyiv’s criticism of the U.S. president was “unacceptable” and urged Mr. Zelenskyy to sign a deal giving preferential access to Ukraine’s critical minerals and natural resources.

“We’re getting all this pushback… they need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” he said.

Mr. Trump is calling for Kyiv to hand over access to its mineral wealth as compensation for tens of billions of dollars in U.S. aid delivered under his predecessor Joe Biden.

Mr. Zelenskyy rejected a deal proposed by Mr. Trump as it did not include “security guarantees” — Kyiv’s key demand from its Western backers in any agreement with Russia to halt the fighting.

The feud marks a dramatic reversal from U.S. policy under Mr. Biden, who lauded Mr. Zelenskyy as a hero, shipped vast supplies of arms to Kyiv and hammered Moscow with sanctions.

Mr. Trump has instead criticised Mr. Zelenskyy and blamed him for starting the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.

Mr. Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 for a five-year term and has remained leader in line with Ukrainian rules under martial law, imposed as his country fights for its survival.

While Mr. Zelenskyy’s popularity has fallen, the percentage of Ukrainians who trust him has never dipped below 50% since the conflict started, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Mr. Trump’s invective drew shock reactions from Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” to call Mr. Zelenskyy a dictator.

The White House said France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer will visit Mr. Trump next week after European leaders held emergency summits in recent days over how to deal with Mr. Trump’s threats to overhaul decades of transatlantic security ties.

The Kremlin, buoyed by its rapprochement with Washington, has hailed Mr. Trump’s comments.

Russia, which for years has railed against the U.S. military presence in Europe, wants a reorganisation of the continent’s security framework as part of any deal to end the Ukraine fighting.

Mr. Putin said Wednesday that U.S. allies “only have themselves to blame for what’s happening,” suggesting they were paying the price for opposing Mr. Trump’s return to the White House.

Neither Kyiv nor Europe were invited to high-level talks between Russia and U.S.’s top diplomats in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, deepening fears they are being sidelined.