WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers stressed their support for Ukraine as US President Donald Trump, the leader of their party, hurled shocking attacks against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stunning European allies and appearing to upend decades of US support for victims of Russian aggression.

“There is no moral equivalency between Vladimir Putin and President Zelenskyy. President Putin is evil, and he has to be stopped,” Senator Thom Tillis (Republican, North Carolina), who visited Ukraine over the weekend as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, told reporters on Wednesday. 

The North Carolina Republican called the Russian president “a murderous dictator who started this war, ordered the occupation, and now the souls of tens of thousands of Ukrainians are lost on his watch.”

“He has lied every step of the way, and I believe any resolution in Ukraine that makes him feel like he won or just pushed to a tie is a bad idea,” Tillis added. 

Trump used his Truth Social platform on Wednesday to lash out at Zelenskyy and call the Ukrainian a “dictator without elections” who has “done a terrible job” defending his country. Ukraine hasn’t had elections since martial law was put in place after Russia invaded its territory three years ago and launched a deadly bombing campaign that persists today. 

Trump’s broadside followed Zelenskyy’s comment that the US president was being influenced by Russian disinformation after Trump falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war with Russia. 

“You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. You should have never started it,” Trump said of Zelenskyy at an event at the White House.

The exchange between the two presidents came after US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia to negotiate a settlement to end the war. Ukrainian and European officials were not included in the meetings, despite their insistence that they should be part of any such discussions, and US officials left open the possibility of ceding Ukraine’s territory to Russia and made requests of Ukraine to agree to hand over resources like rare earth minerals to the US.

Most Republican lawmakers said they disagreed with the notion that Ukraine started the war with Russia.

“When it comes to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I blame Putin above all others,” Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina), a top Trump ally who also met with Zelenskyy over the weekend, wrote in a social media post. Graham gushed at the Ukrainian president during their meeting, “You’re the ally I’ve been hoping for all my life.”

Senator John Kennedy (Republican, Louisiana), another Trump ally, called Putin “a gangster” and “an evil person.” He too said he disagreed with the notion that Ukraine somehow started the war with Russia. 

And Senator Mike Rounds (Republican, South Dakota) heaped praise on Zelenskyy, calling him “the duly elected” president of Ukraine.

“I think he has been a key component in the fact that they’ve been able to withstand the Russian attacks,” Rounds said. 

Other Republicans were more forceful in their condemnation of Trump’s comments. Representative Don Bacon (Republican, Nebraska), a moderate centrist, said Putin is a dictator who murdered his political opponents. He then went on to fact-check the rest of Trump’s claims in his Wednesday social media post.

“The EU nations have contributed more to Ukraine,” Bacon wrote. “Zelenskyy polls over 50%. Ukraine wants to be part of the West, Putin hates the West. I don’t accept George Orwell’s doublethink.”

But other Republicans were more deferential to Trump, suggesting his approach was focused on securing a peace agreement.

“I think right now, the administration, the president and his team are working to achieve that. And I think, right now, you got to give them some space,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (Republican, South Dakota) said at a weekly press briefing on Wednesday.

Asked if he agreed with Trump that Zelenskyy is a dictator, Thune said, “The president speaks for himself. What I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome.”