US President Donald Trump has said French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of their visits to the White House next week.
Trump also said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has “no cards” in peace negotiations, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK, France and other allies have been supplying Kyiv with weapons and other aid.
On Monday, European leaders held a crisis summit in Paris on Ukraine – a day before US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, and amid fears that Ukraine and Europe could be excluded from peace negotiations.
Despite his criticism of Macron and Starmer, Trump in his interview with Fox News also praised the European leaders. He said he considers Macron to be a “friend”, and called Starmer “a very nice guy”.
Macron is expected to visit Washington DC on Monday, while Starmer is expected to visit the White House on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Starmer said he is “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal.
The BBC has contacted the PM’s office for comment.
While European leaders have ruled out negotiating with Russia, they have met regularly to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia.
Many European nations have also signed agreements to support and provide aid to Ukraine.
In January, Starmer signed a “landmark” 100-year pact, telling Zelensky: “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said he had “extensive and positive” discussions with Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.
Kellogg went on to praise Zelensky as a “courageous leader” – only days after Trump referred to him as a “dictator”.
Zelensky has held phone calls with various global leaders in recent days, who have expressed their commitment to ensuring Ukraine is involved in peace talks.
Trump, in his Fox interview on Friday, said Russia and Ukraine would not want to begin peace talks without his own personal involvement.
He also continued to criticise Zelensky, saying: “I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated.
“I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it,” he continued. “You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.”
And after criticising Zelensky over the past week – using talking points that analysts say sound more like they originate in Moscow than Washington DC – Trump offered that “of course” he would take a phone call from Ukraine’s president.
He insisted several times that Zelensky was to blame for failing to prevent the war, saying that Russia could have been “talked out” of invading Ukraine.
Asked about Ukraine’s absence at peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Trump said that Russia “found it impossible to make a deal with Zelensky”.
He said he believes that Russia sincerely wants a deal to end the war, but that President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have to make a deal”.
US Vice-President JD Vance later hit back at critics who said that Trump’s stance on Russia amounted to “appeasement”.
“We are negotiating to end the conflict. It is ‘appeasement’ only if you think the Ukrainians have a credible pathway to victory. They don’t, so it’s not,” he said in a post on X.
The US is pressing Ukraine to sign a deal that would give the US rights to Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth minerals, as part of talks to end the war.
Trump has styled this as a way for Ukraine to repay the US for its past military support. On Friday, he told reporters that the US and Ukraine are “pretty close” to signing the deal, adding that the US will “get our money back”.
He added that Zelensky and Putin must “get together” to end the war.
Ukraine has put forward changes to the US-proposed minerals deal, with talks progressing, according to reports.
White House Security Adviser Mike Waltz said on Friday that Zelensky “is going to sign that deal”.
Zelensky previously rejecting the proposal, saying that it is not “a serious conversation and that he “cannot sell our state”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Zelensky, told BBC News on Friday that Ukraine is open to striking a deal.
He said that Ukraine wishes to co-operate with the US, adding that it’s “prepared to open investments into the global industries and the development of mineral fields”.
