As their war of words escalated, US President Donald Trump threatened Ukraine&rsquo;s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that there could be a deal with Russia to end the three-year Ukraine War without him. 
Zelenskyy&nbsp;&ldquo;better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,&rdquo;&nbsp;Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. 
&ldquo;We are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only &lsquo;TRUMP&rsquo;, and the Trump Administration, can do,&rdquo;&nbsp;he said. 
The warning came after Zelenskyy complained that Ukraine was not at the talks between US and Russian diplomats in Riyadh, and said that his country would not accept a peace deal reached without its participation. &nbsp;
In a personal attack on Trump, Zelenskyy&nbsp;told reporters in Kyiv that Trump was &ldquo;living in a web of disinformation&rdquo;. 
Trump shot back that Zelenskyy&nbsp;was a &ldquo;dictator without elections&rdquo;. 
Earlier, Trump had accused Ukraine of starting the war, although Russia had invaded it. 
Trump calling Zelenskyy&nbsp;a &ldquo;dictator&rdquo;&nbsp;has to do with Ukraine not holding elections because of the war last year after his five-year term ended. 
As the principal financier and supporter of Ukraine&rsquo;s war efforts, Trump appears to believe that he could unilaterally compel Kyiv to accept peace terms that he works out with Russia&rsquo;s President Vladimir Putin. 
Delegations headed by Russia&rsquo;s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed for more than four hours on Tuesday how to end the war and both sides said there was progress. 
Rubio said that Russia was ready for &ldquo;a serious process&rdquo;&nbsp;to quickly end the war, and Lavrov called the talks &ldquo;useful&rdquo;. &nbsp;
One of the side outcomes of the talks was the agreement to restore their embassies to a full working level since they now have only scaled down diplomatic presences. 
In his Truth Social post, Trump said the US bore an unequal burden compared to Europe in supporting Ukraine. 
He said, &ldquo;Zelenskyy&nbsp;talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion, to go into a War that couldn&rsquo;t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the US and &lsquo;TRUMP&rsquo;, will never be able to settle.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Since the European countries are Ukraine&rsquo;s neighbours, unlike the US which is separated by an ocean, their contributions and the US&rsquo;s&nbsp;should be equal. 
Trump also hit out at his predecessor Joe Biden asserting that Zelenskyy&nbsp;&ldquo;played him like a fiddle&rdquo;&nbsp;and that Biden didn&rsquo;t try to find peace. 
Russia holds about 20% of Ukraine&rsquo;s territory, while Kyiv has captured only a small part of Russian territory in the region around Kursk. 
In a peace deal, it is unlikely that Ukraine would regain all its territory. &nbsp;
US Defence Minister Pete Hegseth said that it would be unrealistic for Ukraine to go back to the pre-2014 borders when Russia annexed Crimea and,&nbsp;after the war began in 2022, captured more territory. 
He also ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine. 
&mdash;IANS&nbsp;

Trump called Zelenskyy a 'dictator' for not holding elections amid the war.

Zelenskyy ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left': Trump on Truth Social

Trump to Zelenskyy: War May End Without You

Zelenskyy ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left': Trump on Truth Social

February 20, 2025 | 08:54 IST