Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a recent interview to “be careful” not to anger President Trump.
His warning comes as the two leaders have gone tit-for-tat in recent days after U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia to begin negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine — with the latter notably left out of the peace talks.
“Zelensky needs to be careful — if he starts getting into a war of words with Trump at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, these senators are going to side with America and Trump and where they want to take that agenda,” Sununu said Friday in an interview with NewsNation’s “On Balance,” referring to some Senate Republicans who were dismayed with Trump seemingly blaming Zelensky for the nearly three-year-long conflict.
Sununu also branded Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “dictator,” during the show, while pointing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Still, he urged Zelensky to proceed with caution.
“Zelensky needs to be careful not to tip this thing over unnecessarily while Trump, you know, I’m not saying he’s playing into Putin, but he’s clearly saying, you know, this isn’t a one-sided negotiation,” the former governor told host Leland Vittert. “We’re going to bring everybody to the table.”
Trump has repeatedly gone after the Ukrainian leader in the last two weeks, characterizing him as a “dictator without elections” and saying he’s done a “terrible job” as the head of the war-torn nation.
The tirade continued on Friday, when the president said he didn’t believe it was paramount for Zelensky to be at the negotiating table, which began earlier this month in Riyadh. Ukraine had no representative during the meeting attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
“I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards,” Trump said on Friday. “He has no cards. And you get sick of it.”
“So, I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you,” the president added. “He makes it very hard to make deals.”
Zelensky has expressed frustration with Ukraine not being involved in the process. After Trump suggested his poll numbers were in single digits, the Ukrainian leader claimed the U.S. commander-in-chief was living in a Russian “disinformation space.”
Sununu also gave credit to the Trump administration for seemingly sidelining the prospects of Ukraine joining the NATO military alliance — an idea that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth poured cold water on after being confirmed to lead the Pentagon.
“Let’s just stop with that nonsense,” the New Hampshire Republican said Friday. “That’s just, that’s what kind of led to a lot of this. And so I do give them credit for trying to be a bit blunt about it, but yeah, it’s not about conservatives or Democrats or Republicans supporting this or that.”
“This is an international stage. This is what’s best in America’s interest,” he added. “Of course, that has to be taken first, but also in the western hemisphere.”
Trump has previously said that Putin wants to make a deal to end the war in Eastern Europe and criticized the way former President Biden and his administration handled the conflict.
“But I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger,” Trump said earlier this week in an interview with host Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio.
The criticism comes as the White House presses Zelensky to accept an offer related to Ukraine’s rare minerals. If accepted, the U.S. would ensure Ukraine has security guarantees in return for negotiating an end to the war.
Zelensky did not greenlight the agreement, but some Trump officials are confident that he will come on board. He has also indicated in the past that he is open to it.
The ex-New Hampshire governor, who led the state from 2017 to 2025, stated that he always thought “democracy” was “on the line” in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The Ukrainian people stood up and pushed back and pushed back on Putin appropriately. And now there’s going to be some capitulation to get peace,” he said. “They all want peace. There’s no question on that.”
