Sir Keir Starmer has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “democratically elected leader” and that it is “perfectly reasonable” to suspend elections during wartime, after Donald Trump called the Ukrainian president a “dictator”.
The UK Prime Minister spoke with the Ukrainian president on Wednesday after the US President unleashed a broadside against Zelenskyy on his Truth Social platform, accusing him of being an autocrat who “refuses to have elections”.
Stressing the need for “everyone to work together”, Starmer threw his backing behind Zelenskyy’s decision to suspend elections in Ukraine while the country is riven by conflict, citing a precedent in the UK during the second world war, according to Downing Street.