Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being trapped in a “disinformation bubble” over the war in Ukraine. The blistering rebuke comes amid an escalating row over a controversial US minerals deal and Trump shot back with a shock claim that Ukraine itself is to blame for starting the conflict with Russia.

A visibly exhausted and stressed Zelenskiy was speaking to reporters in the wake of Trump's decision to exclude Europe entirely from the ceasefire negotiations that began in Riyadh on February 19. Ukraine was invited to participate by special envoy to Ukraine retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg in comments at the weekend during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) but no Ukrainians were at the table when the Russian and American delegations sat down to start discussions.

Zelenskiy also furiously rejected Trump’s demand for a whopping $500bn worth of Ukrainian mineral wealth, bluntly declaring, “I can't sell Ukraine.” As bne IntelliNews reported, Trump's mineral deal for Ukraine reportedly is a demand for reparations that is “worse than Versailles” and would hand the US control of most of Ukraine’s considerable mineral wealth.

"You can't call this $500bn and ask us to return $500bn in minerals or something else. This is not a serious conversation," Zelenskiy said.

Trump claims that the US has spent $300bn on supporting Ukraine over the last three years, but congress only officially authorised $177bn, of which Zelenskiy claims $100bn never arrived. Zelenskiy scathingly detailed the money Kyiv has collected from the US in his remarks: $67bn in military aid and $31.5bn in budgetary support into Kyiv. Ukraine has spent $120bn of its own money and the defence budget now accounts for 20% of GDP, Zelenskiy said.

"You can't call this $500bn and ask us to return $500bn in minerals or something else. This is not a serious conversation," Zelenskiy said. "President Trump...unfortunately lives in this disinformation space," he added. "Around Trump there is a disinformation bubble."

Only a month ago Zelenskiy was encouraging Trump to start talks on exploiting Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, saying “Let’s do a deal!” But he also made it crystal clear that he wanted an American security guarantee in exchange. Trump has offered very little in return and is demanding 50% of all revenues in any joint venture, plus the right of first refusal on any new subsequent project Kyiv puts under the gavel.

Relations between Zelenskiy and Trump have deteriorated rapidly in the last few days at a time when the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are under increasing pressure by Russian forces, which are now only a few kilometres from the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk that supplies much of Ukraine’s army.

The Ukrainian leader slammed the proposed deal as a blatant attempt at economic exploitation and warned that such a move would dangerously undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty at a critical time when it was fighting for its existence.

Trump sparked international condemnation by suggesting Ukraine should take responsibility for the war, saying: “You should have never started it.”

The remark was immediately seized upon by Moscow, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov applauding Trump’s comments as “a truthful assessment” and using them to attack Nato’s involvement in the conflict.

Ukraine’s European allies are becoming increasingly alarmed at the rapid diplomatic thaw emerging from the first high level meeting between US and Russian officials since the war began. Phones that have been silent have suddenly started ringing again, starting with Trump’s unexpected and unannounced call to Putin last week.

The US president has suggested he doesn’t really care how Ukraine emerges from the conflict or in the “just peace” that Kyiv’s European friends have been trying to organise.

“They (Ukraine) may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday,” Trump last week, to widespread condemnation.

For its part, the Kremlin has been ebullient at Trump’s apparent sangfroid over Ukraine’s fate.

"He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into Nato," Lavrov told lawmakers in a report to the Duma following his return from KSA a day earlier. "No Western leaders had ever said that, but he had said it several times. This is already a signal that he understands our position when President Putin.”

As part of his talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh, Russia demanded Nato scrap its 2008 Budapest agreement promise to one day admit Ukraine to Nato. Rubio responded, saying that ending the conflict could “unlock a historic US-Russia economic alliance” suggesting that part of the discussions include economic projects.

Notably, Lavrov also mentioned Russia’s interest in the Arctic during his Duma speech on one of the members of the Russian delegation in Riyadh is Vladimir Proskuryakov who works in the Russian Embassy in Canada and specializes in Arctic affairs. The bulk of its oil and gas deposits are in the Arctic, in the Yamal peninsula that previously supplied Europe with much of its gas. Putin also sent the boss of the sovereign wealth fund, the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev as part of the delegation. Dmitriev is Russia’s deal-maker-in-chief but has no diplomatic experience. However, he was educated in the US and has contacts with both Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as with many Wall Street bankers and the Arab elite.

As Trump gears up for a potential high-stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin later this month, the world watches anxiously – will this latest diplomatic slagging match will only encourage the Kremlin to play hard ball in talks. Earlier it suggested there was “limited wiggle room” for land swaps in the upcoming talks, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Riyadh that no territory can be swapped.

Trump appears to want to be rid of Zelenskiy and has included a demand for presidential election in Ukraine as the second part of a three-stage plan, which Zelenskiy is likely to lose to his former commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Zelenskiy retains the trust of the majority of Ukrainians, but his popularity has slid in the polls to 57% according to a Kyiv pollster. He said attempts to replace him would not work, and claimed Trump’s assessment that he only has 4% of the people’s support in the polls as coming from Russian propaganda.

"As we are talking about 4%, we have seen this disinformation, we understand it's coming from Russia," Zelenskiy told a news conference broadcast on Ukrainian television.