The EU’s top diplomat said Thursday she had initially thought US President Donald Trump had confused Volodymyr Zelensky with Vladimir Putin when he called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator”.

“First when I heard this, I was like, oh, he must be mixing the two, because clearly Putin is the dictator,” Kaja Kallas told reporters in Johannesburg.

In a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday, Trump wrote that Zelensky was a “dictator without elections”.

Zelensky’s five-year term expired last year but Ukrainian law does not require elections during war-time.

“Zelensky is an elected leader in fair and free elections,” Kallas said in a briefing after attending a meeting of G20 foreign ministers.

The constitutions of many countries allow for elections to be suspended during war-time in order to focus on the conflict, she said.

Russia, which attacked Ukraine in 2022, could choose to hold free elections but “they are afraid of democracy expanding, because in democracy, the leaders are held accountable,” the EU foreign policy chief said.

“It’s literally from the dictator’s handbook.”

Trump has rattled Ukraine and its European backers by opening direct talks with Moscow on ending the war, but excluding Kyiv and European countries.

Kallas said the focus should remain on supporting Ukraine and putting political and economic pressure on Russia.

The stronger Ukraine is on “the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table,” she said, adding, “Russia doesn’t really want peace.”

It was also premature to talk about sending troops to protect Ukraine after any ceasefire deal with Russia, Kallas said.

Rather, Ukraine needed concrete security guarantees that Russia will not attack again, she said, adding that history had shown that ceasefires had only been opportunities for Russia “to regroup and rearm.”

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