Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Steve Witkoff of weakening America’s negotiating hand by parroting Russian propaganda. The Ukrainian president claimed Donald Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy “quotes the Kremlin narratives”, which is not helping achieve a peace deal. Mr Witkoff was criticised after he appeared to repeat several of Moscow’s talking points in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, last week. The White House official sent shock waves through Europe when he appeared to accept the results of sham referendums Russia held in Ukraine to justify the seizure of land there. Mr Witkoff claimed the “overwhelming majority” of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson wanted to be under Russia’s rule and said Vladimir Putin was a “very smart guy”. Speaking to a panel of European journalists in Paris, Mr Zelensky was asked whether the White House had been peddling Kremlin propaganda. “Witkoff – indeed – quotes the Kremlin narratives,” the Ukrainian leader said. He added: “I believe this won’t bring us closer to peace, and I believe that unfortunately that would weaken the pressure of Americans [being] applied to the Russian federation. We can only through our actions, correct this information. We are trying to do this.” Mr Zelensky said he had spoken to Mr Trump on several occasions and they had been “trying to exchange truthful information at the intelligence services level because [this is] interfering because we are fighting Putin and we don’t want him to have any assistance. “We are fighting the country that has less dignity and more territory, and it’s difficult for us. I’ve always said to President Trump – we want the Americans on our side. And even if America today has chosen to be in the middle, in the middle means in the middle and not closer to the Kremlin, and that’s important.” His comments came after Vladimir Putin refused to implement the Black Sea ceasefire deal unless Mr Trump has all international sanctions lifted. Pressed whether he thinks the US is falling for Mr Putin’s claims he wants peace, Mr Zelensky warned he thinks America is “under the influence of Russian narratives”. “America, by and large, the people have always supported us”, he said. “The bi-partisan support has been there and therefore assistance was flowing. I can’t be ungrateful for the US for everything they’ve done for us, but they today – very often I believe, unfortunately, are under the influence of Russian narratives, and we can’t agree to these narratives. “But we are fighting for ourselves, and we will be fighting these narratives wherever they are. We just don’t have any other choice. We are fighting for our independence, and for our existence. “We can only open up more truth, we should show by our examples, as we are fighting on the battlefield.” Mr Zelensky’s comments came as Alexander Darchiyev, Russia’s new US ambassador, was understood to have left Moscow to take up his new post in Washington. “The ambassador is expected to depart to Washington on March 26,” a source told TASS, the Russian news agency. The reinstatement of Moscow’s US ambassador, which was agreed last month during talks in Saudi Arabia, is a sign of the thawing of relations between the two nations.