On Thursday Politico claimed that members of President Donald Trump’s ‘entourage’ have begun talks with rivals of Ukrainian Dictator Vladimir Zelensky in the hopes of replacing the wartime ruler with someone new in an election.
“Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job,” Politico said Thursday.
The discussions revolved around the possibility of having Ukraine hold elections soon, something the country’s dictator has repeatedly refused to do.
“The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert,” Politico said Thursday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied the President was “weighing into Ukrainian politics,” clarifying that all Trump wants is a partner for peace.
In February Trump called Zelensky a dictator without elections, perhaps signaling he wants Ukraine to hold elections. On Monday Trump suggested that Zelensky won’t be around for very long if he refused to make a deal with Russia.