Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump upped the pressure on Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Asked about the possibility of holding elections in Ukraine before the start of summer, Trump was provoked to simply assert: “Well, Zelenskyy’s gonna have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal and Zelenskyy’s gonna have to get moving, otherwise he’s going to miss a great opportunity. He has to move.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio countered Trump’s action, telling the Munich Security Conference: “We don’t know the Russians are serious about ending the war, they say they are. We’re going to continue to test it.” He added: “What we can’t answer, but we’re going to test, is whether there is an outcome that Ukraine can live with and that Russia will accept, and I would say it’s been elusive up to this point.”
Hours later, Zelenskyy told the same gathering: “Americans often return to the topic of concessions. Too often those concessions are discussed in the context only of Ukraine, not Russia.” After that he met with a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, reported that they discussed Ukrainian talking points and stated: “I thank the Senators for their unwavering bipartisan support for Ukraine and Ukrainians.”