Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that US President Donald Trump is living in a "disinformation space".
The comments came hours after President Donald Trump, speaking from his Mar-a-Largo residence, made a series of claims in relation to Ukraine's role in the conflict with Russia.
Donald Trump shot back, claiming Mr Zelensky is "a dictator without elections".
Is there a reason to believe Mr Trump is being influenced by Russian disinformation?
Here is the context behind the comments, and some reasons Mr Zelensky may have to believe Mr Trump is succumbing to Russian propaganda.
At the press event in Mar-a-Largo, Donald Trump called for fresh elections in Ukraine, saying that Mr Zelensky’s approval ratings were on the floor.
Zelensky's approval rating
"The leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at a 4% approval rating," he told reporters, adding "that’s not a Russia thing, that’s coming from me".
It is unclear where Mr Trump got the 4% figure from, and there is no available previous reporting of any such figure in relation to Mr Zelensky’s approval ratings.
However, his claim does align with narratives propagated by Russian media and officials in recent months, which promote the idea that Mr Zelensky is not the legitimate leader of Ukraine.
"According to preliminary estimates, the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] and its speaker remain the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine," Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said in May 2024.
Mr Zelensky was first elected in 2019, and his five-year term was due to end in May 2024, but Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Under Ukraine’s Martial Law Act – as is also the case with other countries - presidential, parliamentary, and local elections are postponed. In November 2023, all political parties in Ukraine voted to postpone the 2024 elections until martial law had been lifted.
In an interview with Piers Morgan on 4 February, President Zelensky said "when martial law is lifted, elections will be announced".
Even the Ukrainian opposition is not pushing for elections to be held.
Opposition party leader, Kira Rudik, told RTÉ on Monday that "talks about any kind of elections, they are not viable at all" adding that there are no discussions about "changing the leadership of our country".
"At the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, we made the vow between the political parties that we will work as one as team Ukraine until we win the war," Ms Rudik said.
Listen: Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik speaks to Katie Hannon on 'Upfront: The Podcast'
A survey in February by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology estimated President Zelensky’s approval rating is at 57%.
Speaking to Ukrainian media today, Mr Zelensky said "if we are talking about 4%, we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia, and we have evidence," adding "unfortunately, President Trump is living in this disinformation space".
Blaming Ukraine for starting the war
At the same press event, President Trump also appeared to claim that Ukraine had instigated the war with Russia.
Ukraine "should have never started" the war, Mr Trump said, in response to questions about the fact that a Ukrainian delegation had not been invited to US-Russia talks that day in Saudi Arabia about the future of Ukraine.
"Today I heard, 'oh, well, we weren't invited,'" Mr Trump said, "well, you've been there for three years ... You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."
It was not the first time Mr Trump appeared to suggest that Ukraine instigated the war with Russia. A week prior, when asked by a reporter if he thought Ukraine was an equal partner in the peace process, President Trump said "I think they have to make peace. Their people are being killed... I said that was not a good war to go into."
There is no truth in the claim that Ukraine – which has been an independent nation since 1991 - started a war with Russia.
What is true is there has long been internal political tension in Ukraine between pro-European and pro-Russian political groupings, and that Vladimar Putin has long seen Ukraine’s future as part of the Russian state.
In 2007, having previously said it was a sovereign decision for Ukraine, Mr Putin raised concerns about discussions that Ukraine may join NATO in future.
Read more: Trump disappointed by Ukraine talks exclusion complaints
Around that time, he also ramped up his promotion of a concept called 'Russkiy Mir,’ something which he began speaking about in the early 2000s.
It is the idea that regions where the Russian language is spoken are part of a connected geopolitical and cultural sphere, and that therefore speakers of Russian should be protected by the Russian State.
Using the rhetoric of the ‘Russkiy Mir’ as one justification, Russian forces annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014, in the wake of pro-European protests in Kyiv.
Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbass region then declared independence with the support of Moscow, and a drawn-out war began on Ukrainian soil.
This war entered a major new phase in February 2022, when Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border at multiple points, beginning full-scale ground invasion, and striking major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.
At no point did Ukraine attack Russia during that period.
Figures within Mr Trump’s inner circle
President Zelensky’s rationale for believing Mr Trump is being influenced by Russian narratives may also relate to some of the recent Trump administration appointees, most prominently, Tulsi Gabbard.
Ms Gabbard is a military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who was appointed in recent weeks by Mr Trump as his Director of National Intelligence, the principal intelligence advisor to the President.
She now oversees 18 intelligence agencies including the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency (NSA).
Ms Gabbard has repeatedly said Ukraine could have "avoided" war had it agreed to stay out of NATO.
On the day Ukraine was invaded, Ms Gabbard tweeted: "this war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border."
While some analysts argue that a Ukrainian declaration to never join NATO could have eased tensions, others note that Vladimir Putin has long held ideological ambitions of controlling Ukraine.
In an address and essay months prior to the invasion in 2021, Mr Putin said that Ukraine was ‘an artificial state,’ and said the people of Ukraine and Russia should be "united".
He also demanded prior to the invasion not just a Ukrainian declaration to not join NATO, but ‘demilitarisation’ of Ukraine.
Ms Gabbard has also previously amplified claims first linked to Russian State media about secret biological warfare labs in Ukraine.
In May 2022, she tweeted "there are 25+ US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which, if breached, would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world".
In the lead up to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian politicians and State media claimed Ukraine and the US were using the labs to create deadly bioweapons to target specific ethnic groups.
US research labs existed in Ukraine and were publicly disclosed as part of a network of facilities linked to the Biological Threat Reduction Program, an international effort to control outbreaks and prevent the use of bioweapons.
Ms Gabbard has vehemently denied accusations that she is being influenced by Russian disinformation.
One of the most influential figures within Mr Trump’s inner circle, Elon Musk, has also promoted narratives which align with the Kremlin viewpoint, which may also be sparking concerns in Kyiv.
On 18 February, Mr Musk replied to a post on X that read "Zelensky doesn’t want peace, he wants money and power," with the "100" percent emoji.
On 17 February, Mr Musk shared a video of Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian delegation arriving in Saudi Arabia for talks with the US, saying "this is what competent leadership looks like".
He has also shared posts on X mocking President Zelensky’s calls for more Western aid to fight Russia.
In November 2024, he shared an interview clip of President Zelensky saying that Ukraine is "an independent country," adding, in reference to Mr Zelensky, "his sense of humor is amazing".
The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk has been in regular contact with President Putin via phone calls, where the two discuss personal matters, business matters, and geopolitics, since at least 2022.
Mr Musk's views towards Ukraine’s leadership appear to have shifted in the interim.
He provided Ukraine with his Starlink satellite system for communications after the full-scale invasion began.
He later incensed Ukrainian and western leaders with a peace proposal which would have seen Crimea recognised as part of Russia, and Ukrainian assurances not to pursue NATO membership.
