Watch: White House briefing after Donald Trump calls Volodymyr Zelensky ‘dictator’

Watch as Karoline Leavitt delivered a White House press briefing on Thursday, 20 February, after Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “dictator.”

On Wednesday, the Republican issued a social media threat against the Ukrainian president accusing him of continuing the war against Moscow as a way to soak American taxpayers.

Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of having “talked the United States of America into spending $350bn dollars, to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.”

He also claimed Mr Zelensky “refuses to have Elections” and falsely accused the Ukrainian leader of being “very low” in polls.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Mr Trump wrote.

Mr Zelensky was elected as president of Ukraine in May 2019. While elections were previously scheduled to go ahead in 2024, they were not held as a result of martial law being in place.