Kyiv, Feb 20 (AP) A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy was cancelled Thursday as political tensions deepened between the two countries over how to end the almost three-year war with Russia.

The event was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelenskyy and retired US Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, but it was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where the two posed for journalists.

They did not deliver statements or field questions as expected. The change was requested by the US side, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov said.

Kellogg's trip to Kyiv coincided with recent feuding between Trump and Zelenskyy that has bruised their personal relations and cast further doubt on the future of US support for Ukraine's war effort.

Dozens of journalists gathered at Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv after being invited to take photos and observe a news conference with Zelenskyy and Kellogg. As the meeting began, photographers and video journalists were allowed into a room where the two men shook hands before sitting across from each other at a table.

Journalists were then informed that there would be no news conference with remarks by the leaders or questions from reporters. Nikiforov gave no reason for the sudden change except to say that it was in accordance with US wishes.

The US delegation made no immediate comment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about why the news conference was called off.

The two men were due to speak about Trump's efforts to end the war. Zelenskyy had previously said he looked forward to explaining what was happening in Ukraine and showing it to Kellogg.

Kellogg, one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book laying out an “America First” national security agenda, has long been Trump's top adviser on defence issues.

Zelenskyy and Trump have traded rebukes in recent days.

The spat erupted after Russia and the US agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. With that, Trump abruptly reversed the three-year US policy of isolating Russia.

Zelenskyy was unhappy that a US team opened the talks without inviting him or European governments that have backed Kyiv.

When Trump claimed Zelenskyy was deeply unpopular in Ukraine, the president said Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” suggesting he had been duped by Putin.

But Zelenskyy “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57 per cent — according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Trump accused Zelenskyy of being “A Dictator without Elections!!” Due to the war, Ukraine did delay elections that were scheduled for April 2024.

Trump also suggested that Ukraine was to blame for the war.

Russia's army crossed the border on February 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

On Wednesday, Trump warned Zelenskyy that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine or risk not having a nation to lead.

European leaders quickly threw their support behind Zelenskyy.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz whose country has been Kyiv's second-biggest weapons supplier after the US, said it was “wrong and dangerous” to deny Zelenskyy's democratic legitimacy.

Ukraine has been defending itself for nearly three years against a merciless war of aggression — day after day,” Scholz told news outlet Der Spiegel.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Wednesday and expressed support for him "as Ukraine's democratically elected leader,” Starmer's office said, adding that it was “perfectly reasonable” to postpone elections during wartime.

Russian officials, meanwhile, are basking in Washington's attention and offering words of support for Trump's stance.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the rhetoric of Zelenskyy and many representatives of the Kyiv regime in general leaves much to be desired” — a veiled reference to Ukrainian criticism of Putin.

“Representatives of the Ukrainian regime, especially in recent months, often allow themselves to make statements about the heads of other states that are completely unacceptable,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Amid the diplomatic clamour, Ukrainian civilians continue to endure Russian strikes. Russia fired 161 Shahed and decoy drones and up to 14 missiles of various types at Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, according to military authorities.

A Russian glide bomb struck an apartment block in the southern city of Kherson on Wednesday night, killing one person and wounding six, including 14-year-old twins, authorities said.

The southern port city of Odesa also came under a Russian drone attack for the second consecutive night, leaving almost 50,000 homes without electricity in freezing winter temperatures, officials said. (AP) GSP