A European Union spokesperson responded to US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by stating that "Ukraine is a democracy while Putin’s Russia is not."
"We have a fairly straightforward and clear position on this: President Zelensky was legitimately elected in free, fair and democratic elections," EU spokesperson Stefan de Keersmaecker told journalists during a press conference on Thursday: "Ukraine is a democracy, Putin's Russia is not."
The comments came after Trump provocatively wrote on his online platform 'Truth Social', "As a dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better take swift action, or he will have no country left."
Relations between the two presidents have soured in recent days. Zelenskyy responded on Wednesday, saying the former US president lives "in a bubble of Russian disinformation" after Trump falsely blamed Ukraine for Russia’s large-scale invasion almost three years ago.
On Tuesday, representatives from the United States and Russia met in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for high-level talks on a variety of issues, including the war in Ukraine.
The two countries agreed to assemble teams to negotiate an end to the war and to restore diplomatic relations, but Kyiv was not invited. The Ukrainian president accuses the US of bringing Russian leader Vladimir Putin out of international isolation.
