US Treasury Secretary Bessent praises Zelensky after Trump’s censure

President Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia said on Friday that he had held “extensive and positive discussions” with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky about the three-year war with Russia and praised the Ukrainian leader as an “embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”.

Retired US Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg – who travelled to Kyiv on Wednesday and whose planned news conference with Zelensky on Thursday was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity – struck a positive tone after what he said on the social platform X was “a long and intense day” of talks with Ukraine’s senior leadership.

His comments marked a departure from recent rebukes of Zelensky by Trump and other senior US officials that appeared to indicate an abrupt deterioration of relations. Trump called Zelensky “a dictator without elections” and warned him that he’d “better move fast” to negotiate an end to the war or risk not having a nation to lead.

The possibility that vital US military aid for Ukraine was in doubt darkened the mood in Kyiv as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russia’s bigger army on the battlefield.

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Trump calls Ukraine’s Zelensky a dictator, tells him to move fast or lose his country

Trump calls Ukraine’s Zelensky a dictator, tells him to move fast or lose his country

European governments, uneasy about being sidelined so far in talks between senior US and Russian officials, have jumped to shore up Zelensky and at the same time avoid a breakdown in transatlantic relations.