Europe reacts to Trump's remarks that Zelenskyy is a "dictator"

Støre: Trump's statement is baseless

"I think this is deeply unfounded. He is a popularly elected president with an overwhelming majority of votes, who was caught in the middle of his term by a full-scale war," Støre said, as reported by NRK.

The opposition in Norway shares the same position as the head of the Norwegian government.

"It is dangerous and frankly false on the part of President Trump. It is sad to realize that there are almost no common values left on the other side of the Atlantic. It is now clear that Trump wants Putin to win," commented the leader of the Liberal Party, Guri Melby.

She also added that the only correct decision for Oslo now is to strengthen support for Kyiv, modernize Norway’s defense, and establish closer ties with the EU.

Scholz: It is dangerous to deny Zelenskyy's democratic legitimacy

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also rejected Trump's statement, as reported by Spiegel. According to him, "it is simply wrong and dangerous to deny the democratic legitimacy of President Zelenskyy."

"The truth is: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the elected head of state of Ukraine. The fact that proper elections cannot be held during wartime is in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution and election laws. No one should claim otherwise," the chancellor emphasized.

He pointed out that it was Russia, under the leadership of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, that started the war against Ukraine.

"Ukraine has been defending itself against a ruthless Russian war of aggression for almost three years now. Day after day," Scholz added.

Reaction of the Finnish President

Finnish leader Alexander Stubb stated that he categorically disagrees with the statement of the U.S. president about Zelenskyy, as reported by Yle.

"Finland supports Ukraine by all possible means. Finland supports the Ukrainian Constitution and democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy," he said.

Like the previous leaders, he emphasized that the war in Ukraine was started by Russia and Putin.

"Our task is to discuss with Trump what the consequences will be if Putin gets his way," Stubb noted.

Reaction of the Czech President

Czech President Petr Pavel also responded to the statement of the American leader Trump.

"What would be the value of elections held in a country that has been resisting aggression from a neighboring nuclear state for three years? How can elections be organized when one-fifth of the territory is occupied by occupying forces, and the entire country is under daily bombardment? Calling the president of such a country a dictator takes an extraordinary level of cynicism," Pavel wrote on social network X.

What preceded this

On February 18, Trump stated at a press conference that trust in the Ukrainian president had fallen to 4%. Zelenskyy responded by saying that Trump "lives in a disinformation space."

The U.S. president also raised concerns about the $350 billion in aid to Kyiv: "We have provided Kyiv, it seems, with $350 billion. Well, maybe a little less, but it's a significant amount. But where is all this money? Where does it go? I've never seen a single report on this."

"We have completely different figures. Everything is very clear for us: the war has cost us $320 billion. $120 billion—this is us, the people of Ukraine, the taxpayers. $200 billion—this is the U.S. and the European Union. These are weapons packages," Zelenskyy responded.

On February 19, Trump stated that Zelenskyy refuses to hold elections and has very low ratings in Ukrainian polls. He called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections." At the same time, EU Ambassador Katarína Mathernová claims that elections in Ukraine can be held no earlier than six months after the end of martial law.