'You should have ended it': Donald Trump blasts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy amid peace talks with Russia to end war

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, i.e., February 19, lashed out at his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, blaming him for the ongoing war with Russia. 

He called Zelenskyy a "grossly incompetent" leader and a "poor" negotiator. Notably, the remarks come after the Zelenskyy expressed his anger over the exclusion of Ukraine from the US-Russia peace talks in Riyadh, which aimed at discussion ways to put an end to the war. 

"Today I heard, 'oh, we weren’t invited.' Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal," Donald Trump stated. 

US-Russia peace talks 

The high-level discussion in Riyadh between the US and Russia aimed at exploring ways to end the war, which began in 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, Ukraine was not invited to the talks, leading to Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly rejecting any potential agreements made between the two countries. 

Meanwhile, the US President also hinted that he would "probably" meet his Russian counterpart - Vladimir Putin - later this months amid efforts to end the war with Ukraine. 

Donald Trump had earlier said that he was in direct touch with both Putin and Zelenskyy and expressed confidence that he had the power to end the war.