Trump savages Zelensky and green lights Europe putting peacekeeping troops in Ukraine | 18 Feb 2025 | President Donald Trump tore into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after U.S. negotiators opened talks with Russia without him that are meant to find a way to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. Trump blamed Zelensky for failing to head off the war inside his country, and the president said he himself was behind a push to require Ukraine to hold new elections before any peace plan can go through. “You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened, even without the United States,” Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Tuesday — even as he said “I like him personally” when speaking about Zelensky. “You should have ended it — three years, you should have never started it,” he said. “Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.”