British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after US President Donald Trump labeled him a “dictator.”
According to a Downing Street statement, Starmer spoke over the phone with Zelenskyy and backed Ukraine’s decision to suspend elections during wartime, drawing a parallel to the UK’s own suspension of elections during World War II.
“The Prime Minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II,” it said.
The two leaders also discussed the ongoing diplomatic efforts, with the prime minister expressing support for US-led initiatives aimed at securing a lasting peace that would prevent future Russian “aggression,” according to the statement.
Earlier, Trump called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator without elections” and warned that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
He posted on Truth Social hours after Zelenskyy hit back at his suggestion that Kyiv “should have never started” the war, saying the US president was living in a Russian “disinformation bubble.”
Trump has advanced negotiations to end the three-year-long war in Ukraine, without the participation of Kyiv and other European governments.
He said Europe has failed to bring peace in Ukraine, and the US was successfully negotiating an end to the war.