America just told Ukraine to drop its own president from peace talks
1 hour ago · 20 October 2026Share
Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Grappone Conference Center in Concord, New Hampshire. File photo. Artaxerxes · CC BY-SA 4.0
Donald Trump just told Ukraine to bench its own president.
He said it a day ago, walking out of the White House, heading to a campaign rally in Kansas.
Trump says quote "Maybe it's time for Zelensky to get somebody else to negotiate."
And he didn't stop there. He said Zelensky doesn't know what he's talking about. He said Zelensky is a man who should have ended this war a long time ago.
Think about that for a second. The President of the United States just told a wartime ally to pull its own leader off the negotiating team.
This is the second time in nine days Trump has gone after Zelensky like this. Nine days ago, on 10 October, Trump said Ukraine should replace Zelensky as president, full stop. Now he's gone further. Not just replace him. Sideline him. Right now. While the talks are happening.
Trump also said he'd do anything to end the war, whether Ukraine has a seat at the table or not.
The Kremlin said a day ago that meeting could happen next month, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in China. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, says there's been talk of a meeting. Nothing finalised. The Kremlin itself says nobody has actually put forward a concrete proposal yet.
So here's where things stand. Three leaders might sit down to discuss ending Ukraine's war. And Ukraine might not be in the room.
Andriy Sybiha, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, says a meeting like that would only encourage Putin to keep fighting.
The rest of this story is for members.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting. White House Rapid Response · Public domain
That's Ukraine's own government saying being shut out of the room isn't just insulting. It's dangerous.
And the timing here is brutal. Hours before Trump said any of this, Zelensky was on a video call with American lawmakers from both parties, set up by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Thom Tillis. Zelensky told them Washington still hasn't explained why Ukraine's Starlink internet got restricted. He said Washington still hasn't explained why Ukraine wasn't warned before a Russian ballistic missile attack. For the third time in recent days.
And overnight, before that call even happened, a Russian strike killed six people in Nova Vodolaha, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. Children were among the dead.
Zelensky called it the most difficult situation since the war began.
So picture it. Zelensky is asking Washington for answers. And Washington's president is telling him to leave the table.
Trump defended his own moves toward Russia in the same breath. He's waived sweeping sanctions on Russia. He's waived tariffs. He's agreed to buy Russian diesel. Trump says he is trying to get what he called a hostage, without saying who.
CNN reports the Trump-Zelensky relationship is now at its lowest point since their Oval Office clash roughly 18 months ago, when the two argued on camera in front of the press.
Zelensky hasn't responded publicly yet. He has said Ukraine would support Trump's energy ceasefire, if Russia actually keeps to it.
So what don't we know? We don't know if Trump has raised sidelining Zelensky with Putin directly. We don't know if the Pentagon or the State Department agrees with him. And we don't know if this is a real shift in how America wants this war to end, or just pressure to drag Zelensky back to the table on Washington's terms.
Right now, Trump is talking about a meeting that might happen without Ukraine in the room. And he's saying, out loud, that Ukraine's president might not need to be there either.
Nothing here was paid for by an advertiser. Members are the entire business model. Bronze is where it starts, and it opens the last seven days in full.
