A news conference due to follow talks between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg was cancelled on Thursday at the request of the US, Kyiv has said.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has waded into the row between the US and Ukrainian presidents with a brutal social media attack on Mr Zelensky. The tech billionaire posted a screenshot of a Daily Mail article from July 2022 showing an image of Ukraine’s president and First Lady Olena Zelenska published by Vogue.
The scheduled comments to the media by Mr Zelensky and retired US Lt Gen Kellogg were called off after their meeting, said the Ukrainian president’s spokesman Serhii Nikiforov.
On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky suggested Mr Trump was in a “disinformation bubble”, prompting a furious rant from the billionaire who branded him a dictator and claimed Ukraine, not Russia, had started the war.
Mr Trump’s national security adviser has told Mr Zelensky to “tone down” his criticism of the US president and accept the terms of a proposed “peace deal” being worked upon by the US and Russia.
Mike Waltz told reporters: “They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal.”
His remarks come after the US reportedly refused to co-sponsor a draft UN resolution marking three years since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The resolution backs Kyiv’s territorial integrity and condemns Russian aggression.
