The United States is “destroying” the established world order, the UK ambassador for Ukraine argues.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the White House “has questioned the unity of the Western world” and that it is “increasingly taking steps” towards Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The comments come after the public clash between Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky and his US Donald Trump, putting pressure on Ukraine to make concessions ahead of peace talks.
Zelensky has since said he is “ready to work” under Trump’s “strong leadership.” This is an obvious cooling of tensions Trump welcomes, after the US suspends military aid to Kiev.
However, Zaluzhnyi’s remarks at a conference held at Chatham House in London on Thursday suggest that there is still dissatisfaction with the US actions.
He told the audience:
The Ukrainian envoy showed talks between the US and Russia, the latter “led by war criminals” by President Vladimir Putin – showing that the White House was “upping the stairs towards the Kremlin regime,” indicating that in this case Europe was fully aware that it could become a new target for Russia.
Zarzni, who took over Kiev’s ambassador to London in 2024 three years later as the Ukrainian military commander-in-chief, also suggested that NATO could no longer exist as a result of a change in Washington’s attitude.
Zelensky expressed his desire to quickly end the war in Ukraine, but Kiev expressed concern about the handling of the Trump administration’s talks and the concessions to Moscow that could be made without Ukraine’s solid security guarantees.
Trump vowed to quickly end the war during the US election campaign, and preliminary US-Russia consultations took place in Saudi Arabia last month – without European or Ukrainian representatives present.
The US decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine and military aid for sharing intelligence news has been cast by Trump administration officials as a way to cooperate with the US-led peace talks on Kiev.
The corresponding pressure the US has placed in Moscow to make concessions has not been made public.
Zaluzhnyi said the suspension of intelligence sharing and the previous decision to oppose the UN resolutions condemning Ukraine’s Russian invasion “a great challenge for the whole world.”
His comments report that members of Trump’s team discussed some of Zelensky’s political opponents, so his comments discussed with some of Zelensky’s political opponents after Trump’s allies suggested they should stand aside in May when his term expires.
It says that talks were held with senior members of the party, opposition leaders Yulia Tymoshenko and Petro Poroshenko, citing unknown sources from the US and Ukraine.
Independent Ukraine polls suggest that Zarzhni has the most common support at least 70%, Zelensky has 57% support and Poroshenko has about 20%. Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have their own red lines and share pro-European attitudes.
In response to the report, Tymoshenko said her team had spoken as “all allies that can help ensure peace as quickly as possible,” but that elections cannot be held under Ukrainian constitution under martial law.
Poroshenko wrote in a lengthy statement that his party is working “publicly transparent” with the United States, and that the conference focuses on supporting Ukrainian war efforts.
While criticizing the Zelensky government’s political decisions and communications with the US, he also emphasized that elections can only be held once a ceasefire is signed.
While a Politico article suggested that the Trump administration may be seeking an alternative to Zelensky, these meetings appear to precede both the war and recent tensions in relations with the United States over the years.
