US President Donald Trump has accused Vladimir Zelensky of “destroying” Ukraine in a scathing interview with Newsmax aired on Thursday night.

Asked by host Rob Finnerty about the Ukrainian leader’s decision to defy Trump’s demand to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities, Trump said, “Zelensky is not a good guy for us to deal with. [Former US President Joe] Biden gave him billions and billions of dollars.”

Trump went on to argue that Zelensky was unwilling to resolve the conflict with Russia through diplomacy. “He says he wants to settle but he [doesn’t],” he said.

“No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky. They’ve destroyed that country,” Trump added.

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