Kremlin says Zelensky needs to be forced to make peace

Moscow, Russia (AFP) March 3 - The Kremlin on Monday accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of not wanting peace, following a clash last week between the Ukrainian leader and US President Donald Trump.

"He doesn't want peace. Someone should make him want peace. If the Europeans do it, all kudos to them," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

This pool photograph distributed by Russia's state agency Sputnik shows Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov moderating Russian President Vladimir Putin's year-end press conference at Gostiny Dvor exhibition hall in central Moscow on December 14, 2023. (Photo by Gavriil GRIGOROV / POOL / AFP)

He described Friday's angry public encounter between Trump and Zelensky as "quite an unprecedented event".

He put the blame on Zelensky, who he said "demonstrated a complete lack of diplomatic abilities. To put it mildly."

Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was aware of what happened, saying it proved Russia's view of the conflict correct.

He suggested that European allies will also have to soothe Trump, saying "someone will have to make sizable efforts in dialogue with Washington in order to somehow cancel out the unpleasant residue that undoubtedly remains in the White House after talking to Zelensky".

In this situation, "clearly the efforts of Washington alone and the readiness of Moscow will not be enough", Peskov said.

The Kremlin commented after Ukraine's European allies held crisis talks in London at the weekend and Zelensky said he would work with Europe to set terms for a possible peace deal.

The Kremlin spokesman described the situation as "complex", saying that "the collective West has begun to partially lose its collective unity" on Ukraine.

"Although possible peace plans are being initially sketched out, it is not possible yet to say that there is a coherent peace plan."

Russia is continuing its "special military operation" in Ukraine, "in order to achieve the aims that it had from the start," Peskov said.

Trump warns will not 'put up with' Zelensky in new attack

Washington, United States (AFP) March 3 - US President Donald Trump warned Monday he would "not put up" much longer with Volodymyr Zelensky's stance on the war with Russia, as the Ukrainian leader countered he wanted to end it "as soon as possible."

In a new sign of frayed ties following their White House blow-up last week, Trump called a comment by Zelensky saying an agreement to end the war remained distant "the worst statement that could have been made" by him.

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025. Zelensky and Trump openly clashed in the White House on February 28 at a meeting where they were due to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine's mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia. "You're not acting at all thankful. It's not a nice thing," Trump said. "It’s going to be very hard to do business like this," he added.
(Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

"America will not put up with it for much longer," Trump said on social media.

The comment came after the Ukrainian president accused Russia of not being serious about peace and warned that tough security guarantees were the only way to end the more than three-year conflict.

Trump's attacks on Zelensky have upended US support for Ukraine and Washington's allies more broadly and stoked concern about the United States pivoting to Russia.

After weekend crisis talks in London, Britain and France are investigating how to propose a one-month truce "in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure" to halt the war.

The summit reaffirmed European backing for Kyiv and saw a pledge to spend more on security to defend any truce, including, potentially, with troops.

Zelensky said after the meeting that discussions were still focusing on the "first steps," adding: "An agreement on ending the war is very, very far away" -- a comment that angered Trump.

However, Zelensky said Monday on X he "very much hopes on US support on the path to peace."

"It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war as soon as possible," he said.

Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, dismissed Zelensky's comments, accusing him of not wanting peace -- echoing US criticisms after he was shouted down in the Oval Office on Friday.

- 'Deliberate escalation'? -

On the ground, Ukrainian officials reported fatalities from a Russian missile strike on a military training facility, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the front line.

A respected military blogger said between 30 and 40 soldiers were killed and 90 more wounded in the attack near Dnipro on Saturday.

Trump has previously called Zelensky, president since 2019, a "dictator" for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war.

Zelensky dismissed calls for him to resign, repeating his pledge to do so only if Ukraine were given NATO membership, which Russia -- and now the United States under Trump -- opposes.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed Zelensky for Friday's White House blow-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, saying he "demonstrated a complete lack of diplomatic abilities."

"He doesn't want peace," Peskov told reporters.

But Germany's likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the astonishing clash was a "deliberate escalation" by Trump.

US and Russian officials have held talks on ending the war, enraging Ukraine and Europe for being sidelined, and prompting fears in Kyiv and beyond that any deal could threaten the country's future.

Zelensky triggered Trump and Vance's ire by questioning whether Russia could be trusted to uphold a truce. Trump has said he trusts his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to "keep his word."

- US support -

French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Figaro newspaper that a truce would not, initially at least, cover ground fighting, as the size of the meandering front line would make it hard to enforce.

Macron also suggested that European countries should raise their defense spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 percent of GDP to respond to Washington's shifting priorities and Russia's militarization.

Shares in European defense companies soared on Monday as a result.

Macron met Trump in Washington last week, as did Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with both seeking to keep Trump onside.

Starmer on Sunday insisted that the United States was "not an unreliable ally," despite Trump's overtures to Putin and open hostility to Zelensky.

US support was still needed to end the fighting, he said.

Zelensky maintained that he remains open to signing a mineral deal coveted by Trump and had not closed the door to any future relations, despite his experience last week.

"I am ready to engage in any kind of constructive format in relations with the US," he said.