US ‘destroying’ world order, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK says

The US is “destroying” the established world order, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has said.

Criticising the new Trump administration’s way of handling foreign policy, Valerii Zaluzhnyi said the White House had “questioned the unity of the whole Western world”.

His comments come amid an apparent cooling of tensions between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his US counterpart Donald Trump, after a public falling-out between the two in the Oval Office on Friday.

Kyiv has made attempts to mend relations with Washington in recent days, after the US paused its military aid to Ukraine and intelligence sharing in a bid to bring Zelensky to the negotiating table.

But Mr Zaluzhnyi’s remarks at a conference at Chatham House in London on Thursday suggest there remains discontent over the US’s actions.

He told an audience: “We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order.”

The Ukrainian envoy added that talks between the US and Russia – the latter of which was “headed by a war criminal” in President Vladimir Putin – showed the White House was making “steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”.

Mr Zaluzhnyi, who took over as Kyiv’s ambassador to London in 2024 following three years as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, also suggested that Nato could cease to exist as a result of Washington’s change in posture, and warned that Moscow’s next target “could be Europe”.

While Zelensky has expressed a wish to bring the war in Ukraine to an end swiftly, Kyiv has voiced concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of talks and the concessions to Moscow that may be made without security guarantees for Ukraine.

Trump vowed during the US election campaign to bring the war to an end quickly, and a US delegation met with a Russian one for preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia last month – without European or Ukrainian representatives present.

The US’s decision to halt its assistance to Ukraine has been cast by Trump administration officials as a means of getting Kyiv to co-operate with the US-led peace talks.

Zaluzhnyi said the pause in intelligence sharing, as well as an earlier decision to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine, were “a huge challenge for the entire world”.

His comments come as Politico reports that members of Trump’s team held discussions with some of Zelensky’s political opponents, after Trump allies suggested the Ukrainian president should stand aside.

Citing unnamed sources in the US and Ukraine, it says talks were held with opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and senior members of Petro Poroshenko’s party, who preceded Zelensky as president.

Independent opinion polls in Ukraine suggest Zaluzhnyi has the most public support with at least 70%, Zelensky has 57% support and Poroshenko about 20%. Tymoshenko and Poroshenko both have their own red lines and share a pro-European stance.

Responding to the report, Tymoshenko said her team was talking with “all allies who can help ensure a just peace as soon as possible”, while noting elections cannot be held under Ukraine’s constitution while it is under martial law.

Poroshenko wrote in a lengthy statement that his party worked “publicly and transparently” with the US, and that meetings have focused on supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

While criticising Zelensky’s government over its political decisions and communications with the US, he too stressed that elections could only take place after a ceasefire was signed.

While the Politico article suggested the Trump administration may be seeking an alternative to Zelensky, these meetings appear to be long-standing and predate both the war and the recent straining of ties with the US.