'Putin is the dictator': Murdoch’s NY Post slams Trump’s Ukraine critique

21 February

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The New York Post rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “dictator.” “President Trump: This is a dictator,” the Post’s Friday cover reads with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Today's cover: Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 9 other Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril,” the Post wrote on X. The cover features an American and a Ukrainian flag.

"A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered."

“Zelenskyy was democratically elected in a fair and free election,” Barak Ravid writes at Axios. “Trump has never called Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator,” he adds.

The Post, a conservative newspaper, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, whom Trump recently called “an amazing guy.” But the publication “has drawn a sharp line in the sand over Ukraine,” David Gilmour writes at Mediaite.

In Friday’s issue, columnist Douglas Murray addressed Trump’s claims about Ukraine.

“Trump is absolutely right in wanting to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. Thesuffering has been appalling and the stalemate brutal,” Murray writes. “But in the furious mix of wild opinions this week from the White House down, there are at least 10 truths that every American voter must hang onto.”

“In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and which will define him when the history books are written,” he adds.

He continues, “to ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come.”

His rebuttals include that Putin started the war and that Russia is “fighting for conquest,” while Ukraine is “fighting for its independence.”

“Putin is a dictator,” he writes. “Putin has ruled Russia with an iron KGB fist since coming to power in 1999. He has ruthlessly quashed independent media, ended free and fair elections, crushed civil society and killed his political opponents. And not just inside Russia, but around the world. People who live inside Russia and express any opposition to the war are imprisoned.”

Truth number 6? “Zelenskyy is not a dictator.”

“You can criticize Zelenskyy, complain. But we should be under no illusions about who started this fire and who the true dictator or villain of this tragic tale is,” he writes.

On Tuesday, the Post’s editorial board challenged Trump on his claims as well. “Hello: Ukraine is the victim of this war, not to mention our ally,” they write.

They, too, defended Zelenskyy: “He didn’t start it, and he’s had no chance to end it except by surrendering to the blood-soaked invader: Whatever negotiating tactics Trump cares to use, turning the truth completely upside down ought to be beneath him.”

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