US President Donald Trump sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying Kyiv is losing the war and warning that US support will not last forever unless Ukraine accepts the peace terms his administration is discussing.

“Zelensky is going to have to get on the ball and start, uh, accepting things,” Trump said, adding that Ukraine had “lost a lot of land” and that “you certainly wouldn’t say it’s a victory.”

Trump insisted, in an interview with Politico, that Ukraine is blocking the peace plan because, according to him, Zelensky “has not yet read” the final version.

He also claimed – without providing evidence – that Ukraine has lost 27,000 soldiers over the past month. If Kyiv rejects the proposed settlement, he said, the US will not continue to support Ukraine indefinitely.

He went further, suggesting Zelensky should consider stepping down because “Ukraine will lose.”

“You know, when you’re losing... Well, they’ve lost territory long before I got here. They lost a whole strip of seafront, big seafront. They lost that whole strip. It’s now a bigger strip. It’s a wider strip, but they lost a lot of land... You certainly wouldn’t say it’s a victory,” Trump told Politico.

Asked which country holds the stronger negotiating position, Trump responded:

“There can be no question about it. It’s Russia. It’s a much bigger country… They’re much stronger in that sense.”

“I watched that taking place and I said, ‘Wow, they’re going to cause some problems here.’ And it started and it could have evolved into World War III. Frankly, I think it’s probably not going to be happening now,” Trump added.

He praised Ukrainian bravery but said “at some point size will win.”

Trump also repeated his long-standing criticism of Europe, claiming that “Europe is being destroyed… most European nations are decaying,” and that immigration is “destroying” the continent.

He argued European capitals are too focused on political correctness, which “makes them weak.”

He called Russia’s war against Ukraine a big problem for Europe, adding, “They’re not handling it well.”

Asked by Politico whether it was time for Ukraine to hold an election, Trump replied: “Yeah, I think so. It’s been a long time. It’s hasn’t been doing particularly well. Yeah, I think it’s time. I think it’s an important time to hold an election.”

He claimed Ukrainian authorities were “using war not to hold an election,” adding that “the Ukrainian people… should have that choice,” disregarding that the Ukrainian constitution precludes holding elections during martial law, a fact that made Kyiv avoid declaring such a condition

“And maybe Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win, but they haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump added.

“You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” Trump claimed.

Trump reiterated his opposition to NATO expansion and claimed that “long before Putin, it was an understanding that Ukraine would not be going into NATO,” echoing a Kremlin myth that such a promise was made during Germany’s reunification in 1990 by the US State Department.

The myth was categorically denied by both James Baker, the Secretary of State at the time, during a 1997 New York Times interview, and by then-President of the Soviet Union, when it still existed, Mikhail Gorbachev in a 2014 interview with Russia Beyond the Headlines, wherein he said:

“The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991. Western leaders didn’t bring it up, either.”

Trump said Zelensky angered Moscow early in the war when he met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in 2019 by telling him that he wanted Crimea back and that Ukraine would join NATO, which would be in alignment with the explicit goal stated in Ukraine’s constitution.

Trump also argued that Putin “had no respect for Biden and he had no respect for Zelensky,” saying the two Eastern European leaders “really hate each other,” which he believes makes negotiations harder.

Trump called President Zelensky a “great salesman.”

“He’s a great salesman… PT Barnum… He could sell any product at any time,” alluding to a quote erroneously attributed to the famous 19th century showman and circus owner that “there’s is a sucker (a naïve, gullible person) born every minute.”

According to Trump, this allowed Zelensky to secure vast US assistance:

“He got crooked Joe Biden to give him $350 billion and look what he got – about 25% of his country is missing.”

Trump again spoke admiringly of Crimea.

“Every time I look at that map, I said, ‘Oh, this Crimea is so beautiful.’ Wow. It’s surrounded on four sides by ocean. I mean, Crimea is massive, but it connects the part of Ukraine through a small little jetty,” he said.

“It’s four sides of ocean in the warmest part. It’s got the best weather, best everything,” Trump added.

He said he now has “great knowledge of Ukraine.”

However, Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe on the northern coast of the Black Sea. It is almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The peninsula is connected to mainland Ukraine via the Isthmus of Perekop in the Kherson region.