Ukraine’s president is fighting a war on two fronts – against Russian forces on the ground and against American assaults over the airwaves
Ukraine’s president appears to be fighting a war on two fronts – against Russian forces on the ground and against American assaults over the airwaves.
View from Ukraine by Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
With Donald Trump openly attacking him, Ukraine’s president is dispensing with the diplomatic niceties towards a crucial partner and is instead fighting back.
It is a risky move given the heavy reliance of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on American military support to fight Russia’s invasion and the US leader’s dislike of criticism.
But the past week of disruptive, strongman diplomacy from the White House – upending traditional assumptions about US support for European and Ukrainian security – has clearly been too much for Kyiv to stomach without speaking back, and bluntly.
Mr Zelenskyy used a press conference inside the presidential compound on Wednesday to say the American commander in chief is surrounded by a circle of disinformation after Mr Trump falsely claimed Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s war and that Mr Zelenskyy has a public approval rating of just 4%.
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Trump living in ‘disinformation space’
The US president is pushing for elections in Ukraine – something that would be very difficult to conduct while the country is still under Russian missile and drone attack and with hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fighting on the frontline.
Mr Zelenskyy said the most recent surveys showed 57% of the population supported him – a similar rating to Mr Trump.
He also issued his strongest criticism yet of an attempt by the Trump administration to make Kyiv sign away half of the wealth it has from rare minerals and other natural resources – equal in value to about $500bn.
Mr Zelenskyy said he could not “sell our state”, adding this was not a “serious” conversation.
But he knows that he does need to have serious dialogue with Washington even after President Trump picked up the phone to Vladimir Putin a week ago, kicking off a thawing of ties between Moscow and Washington that led to a meeting of top US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and plans for a summit between the American and Russian presidents.
A first step will be engaging with Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general currently Mr Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia, who arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning – though was curiously absent from the Saudi Arabia talks despite his job title.
Ukraine’s president said he will talk with Mr Kellogg and would like to take him to visit the frontline and speak to soldiers to understand their view, while also talking to members of the public in the capital to hear what they have to say about the war, Mr Zelenskyy’s efforts and also the comments by Mr Trump.
The envoy, speaking to a small group of journalists when he stepped on the train, said he was there to listen and report back to Mr Trump.
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US ‘will listen’ to Kyiv’s concerns
Asked how confident he was that he would be able to bring Mr Zelenskyy to the negotiating table, Mr Kellogg said: “I’m always confident.”
The coming days will tell whether that confidence is well placed.
Read more:
Trump’s diplomacy does not look good for Ukraine
Trump ‘disappointed’ by Ukraine’s reaction to talks
View from Russia by Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
Volodymyr Zelenskyy had the appearance of a beleaguered leader who knows he is now fighting a war on two fronts – against Russian forces on the ground and against American assaults over the airwaves.
Ukraine’s leader looked almost shell-shocked from Donald Trump’s verbal volleys last night, in which the US president accused Kyiv of starting the war.
President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Pic: Reuters
What has been Ukraine’s biggest supporter now suddenly poses an existential threat. But for now, Mr Zelenskyy is fighting back.
He accused Mr Trump of being “trapped in a disinformation bubble” – that he has not just drunk the Kremlin’s Kool-Aid, but is now bathing in it.
He pushed back on Mr Trump’s spurious claims of only having a 4% approval rating, calling it propaganda from Russia. Moscow has repeatedly tried to portray Mr Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader, due to his term expiring under martial law.
In reality, his numbers are similar to Mr Trump’s, which should resonate with a man who became obsessed with TV ratings during his first term.
But it seems that facts do not always matter now to the White House.
And he was extremely dismissive – to the point of ridicule, almost – of the proposed US/Ukraine mineral deal.
“Not a serious conversation”, he said, rejecting Mr Trump’s business-first approach. Mr Zelenskyy still wants the focus on Ukraine’s scorched earth, not rare earths.
His messages and manner are in stark contrast to those of Vladimir Putin.
Ever since the US election in November, the Russian president has sought to flatter Mr Trump, sympathise with him and be deferential, even when responding to barbs.
And in Riyadh yesterday, Moscow began reaping the rewards.
But Mr Zelenskyy’s position is different, of course. Once the man of the moment, he’s now struggling to stay relevant – in danger of being run down by the Donald Trump deal-making juggernaut.
For now, he’s standing in the road trying to stop it. But any hope that it will change course or hit the brakes may be misplaced.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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