President Donald Trump said Saturday that Ukraine should choose a new president, sharply criticizing Volodymyr Zelenskyy over his handling of the war with Russia and accusing him of failing to secure a peace deal.

Speaking at the White House, Trump argued that Zelenskyy had been unable to bring the conflict to an end despite the enormous human and territorial costs Ukraine has suffered since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

President Trump said today: “ You know what I suggest? I suggest they get a new leader who could make a deal because he could've made many deals and for some reason he never does... I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new President."

Trump also maintained that the war would not have begun had he been president in 2022, blaming what he described as incompetence for allowing the conflict to erupt.

“If I had been U.S. president in 2022, that war would have never started,” Trump said. “There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.”

The president pointed to Ukraine's territorial losses and the staggering death toll as evidence of the cost of the ongoing conflict. He claimed that Ukraine had lost 30% of its territory and cited more than two million deaths between the two sides, though those figures were not independently established in his remarks.

“That's a war that should have never started,” Trump said. “And I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

Trump's comments underscore his continued push for a negotiated settlement, as his administration seeks to bring an end to a war that has devastated Ukrainian communities and inflicted heavy casualties on both countries. His criticism places additional pressure on Zelenskyy, who has maintained that any peace agreement must address Ukraine's security and territorial integrity.

The remarks also highlight a central disagreement over how to end the war: Trump's emphasis on reaching a deal contrasts with Kyiv's insistence that a settlement must prevent Russia from launching another invasion. Moscow's role in starting and continuing the war remains central to negotiations, while the terms of any potential agreement remain unresolved.