Ukrainian President Zelensky Responds to Trump’s Poll Attack: 'We’re in the Real World'

Kyiv(The Uttam Hindu): Hours after US President Donald Trump alleged that Volodymyr Zelensky holds a "4 per cent approval rating", the Ukrainian President responded on Wednesday saying that Trump was living in a "disinformation space". "Unfortunately, President Trump, who we have great respect for as leader of the American people, lives in this disinformation space," Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv.

Local media in Kyiv also highlighted a poll, carried out between February 4 to 9 and published after Trump's comments, to highlight Zelensky's popularity. "Around 57 per cent of Ukrainians trust President Volodymyr Zelensky as of February, marking an increase of five percentage points since December, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published on February 19... The latest survey shows that Zelensky continues to enjoy support from the majority of Ukrainians, even marking a slight increase in trust after a year of steady decline in popularity throughout 2024," reported the Kyiv Independent on Wednesday.

Interestingly, Keith Kellogg, the US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has also arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday and is scheduled to meet Zelensky soon. The Ukrainian media quoted Kellogg as describing his trip as "a chance for good potential negotiations." Part of my mission is to listen before returning to the United States to report to President Donald Trump, Kellogg reportedly said. He also emphasised that the United States recognises the importance of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky's scathing comment came less than 24 hours after top officials from Russia and the United States held discussions for nearly five hours in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh on Tuesday. Both countries stated that they will soon announce teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine besides also ensuring the "earliest possible appointment" of ambassadors in both Moscow and Washington. "Russia and the United States will hold regular consultations on Ukraine after both sides appoint negotiating teams," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press briefing following talks with US officials in Riyadh, on Tuesday.

A meeting of deputy foreign ministers will be scheduled in the near future to "remove barriers" to the work of embassies, Lavrov said following the talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. On the Russian side, senior political, intelligence, and economic officials participated, including Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin's foreign affairs advisor.

"The first is probably the most urgent and certainly not the most difficult. This is to ensure the earliest possible appointment of Russian ambassadors to the United States and the United States to Russia. To remove the obstacles that for many years, primarily from the administration of [former US President Joe] Biden, have been primarily built on the direction of our diplomatic missions, seriously complicating their work," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russia's state-owned Tass news agency while announcing the agreements reached during the meeting.

Lavrov stated that the deputy heads of the diplomatic departments of the two countries "will agree to meet in the very near future and consider the need to eliminate these artificial barriers in the work of embassies and other foreign institutions of Russia in the United States and the United States in Russia".

During these contacts, he said, senior diplomats will have to not focus on "the specific manifestation of these obstacles, but will try to approach them systematically in order to put an end once and for all to these inconveniences that really hinder the development of everyday normal relations".