Donald Trump has reiterated his criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he has “no cards” left to negotiate with and it makes getting a deal “very hard”. Meanwhile, the US envoy has called talks with the Ukrainian leader “positive”. Listen to our Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Friday 21 February 2025 23:09, UK
That’s all for our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for today.
We’ll be back soon with more updates. Until then, here’s a quick rundown of what’s been happening today:
Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy need to “get together” to end the war.
He also said a mineral deal with Ukraine was “pretty close” to being signed, with Zelenskyy later saying his government was working on a draft agreement, and he hoped for a “fair deal”.
Earlier, Trump said Zelenskyy has “no cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings.”
In other news:
Canada opposes Russia’s potential return to the G7, the country’s ambassador to Ukraine has said.
Natalka Cmoc said Canada, which currently chairs the G7, is “not ready for a change in the membership” of the group.
Her words follow Donald Trump’s statement last week when he said he would “love” to see Russia readmitted to the G7, calling its 2014 expulsion a “mistake”.
Cmoc said the G7 should strengthen support for Ukraine and increase diplomatic, financial, and economic pressure on Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine and US teams are working on a “draft agreement” between their governments.
“This agreement can add value to our relations – what matters most is getting the details right to ensure it truly works,” he said in his nightly address.
Ukraine’s president did not go into further detail, though Donald Trump said earlier that a mineral deal with Kyiv was close.
Zelenskyy rejected US demands for $500bn in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid on Wednesday.
As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has been talking to the media today.
During a quick huddle, the US president was asked if he thinks Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a dictator, after he labelled Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy as one this week.
Watch his response below…
Yesterday, we outlined a report that the US is refusing to co-sponsor a UN resolution backing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and demanding Russia withdraw its troops.
The Reuters news agency, which first ran the report, has now said the US has proposed a rival draft.
The brief three-paragraph resolution, seen by Reuters, mourns the loss of life during the “Russia-Ukraine conflict” and reiterates “the principal purpose of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security and to peacefully settle disputes”.
It adds the need for “a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia”.
Reuters said it is not immediately clear when Washington hopes to put the draft resolution to a vote.
The 193-member General Assembly is set to meet on Monday – which will mark three years since Russia’s invasion – to vote on a text drafted by Ukraine and the EU.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry some political weight.
Donald Trump is giving a few remarks now.
Speaking while attending the swearing-in of his new commerce secretary, he’s told reporters that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy need to work together.
He’s also repeated his claim Russia wants to do a deal, with talks between Washington and Moscow beginning on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia.
Addressing an earlier report, he said he will not be in Moscow on 9 May for Victory Day.
He’s also added that a mineral deal is close with Ukraine – echoing comments made a few hours ago by his national security adviser (see our 15.28 post).
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy rejected US demands for $500bn in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid.
He said Washington has supplied his country with $67bn in weapons and $31.5bn in direct budget support throughout the war.
As we’ve been reporting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had another busy day of diplomacy on the phone with various European leaders.
Sweden’s prime minister was among them, and he’s responded to Zelenskyy’s post with a message of support.
“No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine,” posted Ulf Kristersson’s account, in an apparent dig at Washington’s approach to talks with Moscow, which have excluded Kyiv and Europe so far.
Boris Johnson has again chimed in on Donald Trump’s comments this week.
The former UK prime minister, who has supported Ukraine and Trump over recent years, said on Wednesday that Trump’s comments on Tuesday were meant to “shock Europeans into action” after he suggested Kyiv is to blame for the war.
In an apparent attempt to play down Trump’s comments, Johnson wrote on social media: “When are we Europeans going to stop being scandalised about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war?”
That came just hours before Trump labelled the Ukrainian president a “dictator” in a scathing social media post that sent shockwaves across the continent.
Writing in his Daily Mail column tonight, Johnson said it has been “a bad few days for the truth” and again dismissed the idea Ukraine is at fault as “victim-blaming rubbish”.
But he said Trump’s team will know this – “these are good, conscientious diplomats”, he wrote.
He said he was in “every important NATO meeting” in the six years before Russia’s invasion, writing: “I can tell you that Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO – then – were about as good as a snowball’s chance in Hell.”
He added: “Yes, we occasionally paid lip-service to Ukrainian ambitions, since they had been promised membership in the past.”
‘He needs to stun Europe’
He added there is “not a shred of moral equivalence” between Ukraine and Russia.
No one in the US State Department believes it and nor does Trump, he continued.
“As it happens, I believe this president has the ability to produce peace – peace through strength. I remain optimistic,” he said.
“He needs to stun the Europeans into paying more. He needs to get the Ukrainians to sign the minerals deal, which is now overdue.
“Most difficult of all, he must get Putin to come to the table and talk – because it is Putin, now, who has the most to lose from a peace deal.”
For context: Before the US election, Johnson said he believed Trump will be “robust” when it comes to Russia.
“I cannot believe that a guy who is so passionate about his country… will want to kick off his next presidential term by basically allowing the Soviet Empire to be great again,” he told CNN.
He also said offering NATO membership to Ukraine is the “only solution”, but Trump said that is unlikely.
We’ve just caught up with Christopher Steele, a former MI6 intelligence officer who authored a 2016 dossier alleging Donald Trump had been “compromised” by Russia’s security service.
That has always been denied by Trump, but Steele believes it could be one explanation for the president’s “fear and admiration” for the Russian leader.
“It’s almost a hero worship and it’s a fear, I think, involved as well,” Steele told our presenter Kamali Melbourne.
“I think Trump both fears and admires Putin… and one of the explanations, of course, is that Putin has some kind of leverage over him, which is what we contended in 2016.”
Steele also thinks Trump’s previous dealings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy may, partly, explain his approach.
In 2019, Zelenskyy reportedly felt pressured by Trump to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.
According to a phone call memo, Trump told him: “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that.”
In the days before that call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400m (£323m) in military aid for Ukraine, prompting speculation that he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens.
“Donald Trump is a vengeful man who bears grudges, and he’s never forgiven Zelenskyy, in my view, for that episode,” Steele added.
Thousands are protesting in Slovakia, demanding the prime minister resign over what they see as a foreign policy pulling the country closer to Russia.
It’s the latest in a regular series of demonstrations since early January, sparked by Robert Fico visiting Moscow in December to meet Vladimir Putin.
“Slovakia is Europe,” crowds in the capital Bratislava chanted, along with shouts of “enough of Fico”.
Fico ended military aid to Ukraine and is in dispute with Kyiv over the end of Russian gas transit.
The four-time prime minister has vowed not to resign.
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