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'It's bonkers': Sadiq Khan hits out at Trump for 'rewarding' Putin while excluding Ukraine from peace talks
19 February 2025, 12:07 | Updated: 19 February 2025, 13:05
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has hit out at Donald Trump for 'rewarding' Vladimir Putin while excluding Ukraine from peace talks.
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Speaking during LBC's Speak to Sadiq, he said "what happens in Ukraine happens to us", as he warned that Trump was "rewarding" Putin.
He said it was "bonkers" that President Zelenskyy's team had not been included in talks to end the war in Ukraine.
"We have tens of thousands of Ukrainians who are refugees in our city because of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine," the mayor said.
"And what beggars belief is for the president of the USA apparently rewarding the aggressor, not just in terms of giving him the 20% of Ukraine that they currently occupy, but also somehow blaming President Zelenskyy for what's happened over the last few years."
Sir Sadiq Khan opens up on Trump and Ukraine as he takes LBC listener's calls
He went on to say: "When you hear the stories of those who've lost their lives, those who are bereaved, those who are amputees, the suffering in Kyiv and across Ukraine, and somehow blame the Ukrainian leadership is beggars belief.
"But also the idea that you'd have Putin's team and Trump's team having conversations about Ukraine's future without President Zelenskyy or Ukrainian people is just bonkers."
Sir Sadiq said he spent Tuesday with the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, who is trying to get across the suffering still going on.
"One of the reasons he's here is to make sure we remind ourselves of what's happening in Kyiv and Ukraine," he said.
"Vitali is somebody who knows Donald Trump from his days as a boxer. Both him and Vladimir, his brother, were world champions, and he's really keen to get across the suffering that's still taking place, the loss that's taken place over the last three years.
"But also, there can be no solution [without including the] Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian leadership."
Donald Trump says Ukraine 'should have never started' the war with Russia
It comes after Zelenskyy said Trump is living in a Russian "disinformation space", following the US president's comments about the Ukrainian leader's approval rating.
Trump said at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday that Zelenskyy's rating stands at 4%.
The Ukrainian president replied at a news conference in the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday: "We have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia."
He added that Trump "lives in this disinformation space".
The US president also suggested that Ukraine ought to hold elections, which have been postponed due to the war and the consequent imposition of martial law, in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution.
Public opinion polls and approval ratings have not been reliable in Ukraine because of the fighting.
Zelenskyy made the comments shortly before he was expected to meet Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg will meet Zelenskyy and military commanders as the US shifts its policy away from years of efforts to isolate Putin.
Trump suggested on Tuesday that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week, as talks between top American and Russian diplomats in Saudi Arabia sidelined Ukraine and its European supporters.
The US president's comments angered Ukrainian officials, who are still urging the world to help them fight Russia's full-scale invasion that began on February 24, 2022.
