Donald Trump has called for new elections in Ukraine , taking a swipe at President Volodymyr Zelensky's handling of the war. The US president criticised those who have questioned the absence of Ukrainian officials from recent Russia-US talks aimed at ending the conflict, suggesting that Zelensky lacks the support of his own nation.

Amid concerns from America's Western allies about the Trump administration proceeding with discussions without Ukraine's involvement, France convened an emergency meeting with European Union countries and the UK on Monday. During a press conference, when asked about Zelensky's absence, Trump appeared to doubt his legitimacy as leader, claiming - without any evidence - that he has a mere 4% approval rating in Ukraine. (Statista reports Zelensky's approval rating was close to 70% in October 2024.)

"We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we essentially have martial law," Trump declared. "Where the leader in the Ukraine, I hate to say it, he is down at 4% approval rating and the country has been blown to smithereens. Most of the cities are lying on their sides, buildings have collapsed it looks like a massive demolition site."

He further described the devastation in Ukrainian cities, noting that while Kyiv has not been completely destroyed due to restraint in rocket attacks, other cities have been utterly decimated.

He added: "So many cities, they haven't done it in Kyiv I suppose because they don't want to shoot too many rockets there - they've done it 20%but they haven't done it 100%there, and if they wanted to do it 100% then they could probably do it very quickly. You have cities that are absolutely decimated.

"And if they want a seat at the table well the people of Ukraine could well it's a long time since we've had an election. That's not a Russia thing, that's something coming from me and many other countries as well.", reports the Mirror.

Mr Trump said he was "more confident" about securing a peace deal following today's talks in Saudi Arabia with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov. Trump, speaking from his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, expressed openness to the idea of European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine as part of a settlement, telling reporters, "If they want to do that, that'd be fine."

He also remarked that the US would be fully supportive and would "not object to that at all".

He added: "I know France has mentioned it. Others have mentioned it, the UK has mentioned it." And he lauded the idea as a "beautiful gesture".

In stark contrast, Lavrov earlier declared that Russia would categorically oppose any NATO forces in Ukraine, stating that "Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable."

Additionally, Trump boasted that he could have orchestrated a "made a deal" for Ukraine if he had been president in 2022.