Speaking on Wednesday's "Esimene stuudio," Tsahkna said Putin was gifted the start of negotiations by Trump.

"If we look at what Putin has achieved over three full years of war instead of a three-day special operation, he has not gained any strategic success. He has not made any major breakthroughs, and even part of Kursk Oblast is in Ukrainian hands. Now he is trying to achieve success through negotiations, and Trump has opened that door for him," the foreign minister said.

From Putin's perspective, Tsahkna said, this is an "absolute victory."

"Even just the fact that these negotiations have started and have started in a way where Putin is dictating the topics today, all the way to what Trump has said in the last few hours [calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator – ed.]. The narrative that Putin has been pushing has somehow also become Trump's own, something we perhaps could not have imagined even a month ago. This is certainly bad. The only dictator, the only tyrant, the only aggressor, the only war criminal here is still Putin — there is no doubt about that," the minister said.

Tsahkna said Trump's demand for elections to be held in Ukraine as soon as possible is on Putin's wish list.

"Putin has demanded this. Putin has stated that he will not sign anything with Zelenskyy, he will not discuss anything with Zelenskyy, because Zelenskyy is not a legitimate leader," Tsahkna explained.

"And as if Putin is? Putin is clearly not a legitimate leader; there have been no real elections in Russia for a long time," he added.

Tsahkna said it is practically impossible for Ukraine to hold democratic elections during wartime. Millions of people are either fighting on the front lines or have fled the country, and voter registries may not even exist.

"And if Zelenskyy were to hold elections, he would have to suspend martial law. That would also mean that soldiers would leave the front lines and go home, and then there would be no more talk of Ukraine even remaining as a country at all, because Putin has no intention of waiting for any elections to take place. So this demand is just another example of something that is entirely different from what actually needs to be done," the foreign minister told the show.

Despite the current conflicting messages from the United States, relations between Europe and the U.S. remain strong, although they are different from what they were before, the minister said.

"This requires us to stand up on our own now. These alarm bells have been ringing at least since 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia, in 2014, and at many other moments. There is no more time to wait for alarms — we need to wake up. And in speaking over the past few days and meeting with European partners — communication has been very active — Europe is actually in a better position than I expected," he added.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that Trump's comments on Ukraine are meant to "shock Europeans into action" not be historically accurate. "When are we Europeans going to stop being scandalized about Donald Trump and start helping him to end this war? Of course Ukraine didn't start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor," he wrote on X.

Tsahkna agreed with Johnson: "What Trump is saying is false. We all know that. There is no point in constantly engaging with it; instead, we need to focus on what we can do."

"And not just to be even more worried and make statements, but Europe has the opportunity to demonstrate through actions — through financial and military aid to Ukraine — that we continue to stand behind Ukraine. We are capable of largely replacing U.S. aid, which may be halted. At the moment, [former U.S. President] Joe Biden's aid is still crossing the border into Ukraine and ensuring that Ukraine can continue to fight and remain committed to its objectives. And there is no other objective but to survive," the minister commented.

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