Invoking the spectacle of Bill Murray's classic comedy, Groundhog Day, at a speech in Davos, the Ukrainian president said the UK and Europe are stuck in a doom loop, repeating rhetoric about what needs to be done - without taking the action required to make things change.
This, he said, meant they were left scrambling to respond to world events instead of standing united as a great power with the ability to shape their collective destiny.
Latest - Trump envoy in Moscow
Only from such a position of strength could Europe hope to influence supposed friends such as Trump and foes like Putin.
Addressing the World Economic Forum following a face-to-face meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said Europe "remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers".
"Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide, especially when America's focus shifts elsewhere, Europe looks lost, trying to convince the US president to change," he said. "But he will not change. President Trump loves who he is, and he says he loves Europe, but he will not listen to this kind of Europe."
Making no effort to mask his frustration, Ukraine's wartime leader listed failure after failure by London, Berlin, Paris, and the rest of Europe's NATO capitals to adopt a united front in the face of rapidly evolving challenges.
In particular, Zelenskyy pointed to the row with Washington over Greenland, which was started and ended by Trump after he threatened to seize the territory, only to back down, but not before plunging the rest of the alliance into crisis and taking attention away from Russia's war in Ukraine.
He also slammed the Europeans for standing on the sidelines while Iran killed thousands of protesters earlier this month, asking: "What will Iran become after this bloodshed? If the regime survives, it sends a clear signal to every bully - kill enough people, and you stay in power. Who in Europe needs that message to become a reality?"
But his strongest condemnation was for the continued weakness of European allies in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion of his country, which is about to enter its fifth year.
Zelenskyy's pointed question
Zelenskyy noted how Trump had moved quickly to capture Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro and put him on trial, while Putin remains at large despite European desires to establish a special tribunal to try him for war crimes.
"What's missing - time or political will?" he asked. "Too often in Europe, something else is always more urgent than justice."
He was similarly scathing about efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine, signalling that work led by the UK and France to establish a "coalition of the willing" - while "positive" - was an empty gesture without US involvement.
And pointless unless the fighting stops.
"What about the ceasefire itself? Who can help make it happen?" he asked. "Europe loves to discuss the future, but avoids taking action today. Action that defines what kind of future we will have. That's the problem."
Finally - and this was a point Zelenskyy first made a year ago, so it is hardly surprisingly he is exasperated at having to make it again - the president called on nations across Europe to create a united armed forces to defend their continent.
This would be instead of relying on an increasingly unpredictable US as part of the NATO alliance - an idea that has in the past been rejected by countries like the UK that put operating with US forces as a central part of their security planning.
Zelenskyy warned that world events right now - from Trump's social media posts to Putin's next bout of hostilities - were moving faster than Europe could cope with.
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"We should not accept that Europe is just a salad of small and middle powers seasoned with enemies of Europe," he said. "When united, we are truly invincible.
"Europe can and must be a global force, not one that reacts late, but one that defines the future."
The words of John Cuddihy, whose daughter was diagnosed with cancer aged 15 before contracting an infection possibly linked to contaminated hospital water.
The scandal centres on the near £1bn Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow that opened in 2015, days after a report, which was leaked by whistleblowers, warned of "high risks" with the water supply.
Several children died and more than 80 fell ill at the campus, which health bosses admit opened too early.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the local health board, had always denied any link between the bacteria-related illnesses and the water system. This week the NHS finally conceded some infections were probably linked.
Police and prosecutors in Scotland have named Glasgow's NHS as a suspect in a corporate homicide investigation.
Health leaders have in recent days issued a "full and unreserved apology" for the handling of the crisis and the harm caused.
In 2021, Molly Cuddihy told a public inquiry that she was informed her infection was linked to the "environment", such as water or air.
She died in 2025. Prosecutors have told Sky News they are separately examining her death.
'Failings cost my daughter her life'
Her father, Professor John Cuddihy, had made it his mission to get answers.
The former police officer is at pains to stress the staff treating his daughter over the years were "world class", but he condemns NHS leaders and the lack of transparency.
"It cost Molly her life. The bacterial infection that she had had such a debilitating impact on her quality of life. It was a consequence of… the infection that should never have happened."
An emotional John describes his daughter as "the most remarkable wee girl".
Mr Cuddihy continued: "Molly's life was cut short because of the failings, the corporate failings within an institution that was there to protect her. They failed to protect her. That is very, very hard to forgive."
Mother claims daughter was murdered
The case of 10-year-old cancer patient Milly Main became one of the main catalysts for the creation of the judge-led public inquiry.
She passed away in 2017 after contracting an infection found in water while recovering from leukaemia treatment. Her mother claims she was murdered.
Detectives are examining her death as part of the ongoing investigation.
The whistleblower who isn't convinced the hospital is safe today
Sky News has interviewed Dr Christine Peters, a prominent consultant microbiologist who still works at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
She was the infection control doctor on site when the building opened and she describes "immediately having concerns about the validation of the building".
She risked her career to whistle blow publicly about her concerns when the campus opened, and the ongoing worry she still has.
Dr Peters said: "My concerns were very much focused on the potential for there to be fatal infections and that is why we did what we did."
The senior clinician describes being "mocked" and "intimidated" when raising the alarm among senior NHS leaders, including her contribution being treated as "irrelevant" at hospital meetings.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde admitted it previously mistreated whistleblowers.
When asked by Sky News if deaths and harm may have been avoided if whistleblowers were listened to, Dr Peters replied: "That is my belief. It is an awful thought. It is difficult to prove because there are so many factors involved."
Dr Peters was questioned about whether she believed the Glasgow super hospital was safe today, as NHS leaders suggest.
She replied: "Clearly everyday thousands of patients are going to that hospital, and my colleagues are brilliant. Do we have the evidence to show us the hospital is safe today? From my personal point of view, I don't have the evidence that satisfies me."
When asked to clarify, she said: "I think in terms of specific details, I don't have details to say one way or the other and after 10 years that is not acceptable."
The battle between cancer and infection
Charmaine Lacock's daughter Paige was two years old when she was diagnosed with leukaemia at the Glasgow super hospital.
Paige is now 10 but is still living with the consequences of an infection she contracted during her cancer treatment.
Ms Lacock told Sky News: "We were told she had a life-threatening infection and that it could go either way. You automatically think my kid is going to die.
"So you prepare for the worst. We should have been in a position where we had all our time and energy to fight the cancer."
The mother, who lives in Clydebank, said she was met with a culture of denial when she pushed for answers and believes there was a conspiracy to cover up what was really happening.
Hospital is safe, says NHS trust…
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recognises communications failings but has denied a campaign to cover up.
A spokeswoman said: "We offer our sincere and unreserved apology to the patients and families affected.
"We want to reassure patients and families that the QEUH and RHC are safe today. Ensuring the safe care of our patients is our key priority at all times.
"Comprehensive steps have been taken to address past physical defects in the building, and a significant and ongoing programme of maintenance and monitoring is in place. Our staff are committed to providing safe, high-quality care.
"In our closing statements we have acknowledged issues with past culture and communication, and we are committed to learn and continue to improve our approach. We have outlined the significant improvements undertaken as an organisation during this time to improve governance and oversight, and that issues are being addressed both proactively and reactively, and in a timely manner."
…but 'cover-up' claims persist
Karen Stirrat flew her son Caleb to the US for proton beam therapy after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of three.
She alleges American doctors revealed the medication her son had been prescribed in Scotland was due to "dirty water" and a "dirty hospital" rather than drugs to deal with the cancer.
Ms Stirrat told Sky News about the moment US doctors examined the situation
She said: "It was disclosed over there that it (the drugs given in Scotland) wasn't actually part of his chemo regime after all.
"We were puzzled. They looked at us flabbergasted, and they said they had to phone Glasgow [for answer]."
Karen returned the next day with her husband for answers where she said "the words out the clinician's mouth was 'your dirty water and your dirty hospital'."
Ms Stirrat also alleges a "cover-up" and believes it is to protect themselves from "any future prosecutions".
Scottish Labour has been pressuring the SNP Scottish government over whether there was pressure from ministers in 2015 to open the hospital before it was ready.
First Minister John Swinney rejected the claim.
To suggest that coalition forces fighting with the Americans in Afghanistan "stayed a little back; a little off the frontlines" will also resonate far wider than debates over geopolitical realignment.
It's hard to know sometimes whether Trump is ignorant or just doesn't really care.
As James Matthews and I discussed on the Trump100 podcast, it's probably both, perhaps combined too with some intentional provocation - easier for someone seemingly incapable of empathy.
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His words will be a gut punch for the families of the 1,160 non-American coalition soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.
It will be a gut punch too for the thousands more who were wounded fighting this war, many left without limbs.
And it will be a gut punch to the soldiers of so many nations who stood up to fight alongside American soldiers on the frontlines and for whom not a day will pass without them thinking about their experiences in that war.
Afghanistan was America's war. America's friends stood up and answered the call for support after 9/11. For over two decades, America's allies would continue with that support in an increasingly futile conflict.
The troops who didn't come home
I spent time with British and Danish soldiers in Helmand Province in 2007. They were very much on the frontline. The Danish lost more soldiers in Afghanistan per capita than any other NATO nation.
Battles in towns like Sangin, Musa Qala, Babaji and Nad Ali are etched in the memories of the many who were there and the many families of those who didn't come back.
Britons remember what became a desperately sad routine: coffins draped in the Union flag passing through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett as the fallen were repatriated and returned to their loved ones.
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457 British service men and women died in Afghanistan.
Donald Trump dodged the draft for the Vietnam War five times.
"Bills have become astronomically expensive in the last few years," said Jane, a support worker for people with learning needs.
Then she qualified for internal wall insulation, smart radiator sensors and an extractor fan under the ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme, designed to upgrade homes for those in fuel poverty and make them greener.
It is paid for by energy bill payers and overseen by a patchwork of energy companies, the government and other agencies.
"I almost felt special, like I could cut energy bills and have a bit left each month," said Jane, a single mother-of-two, who works full-time but receives some universal credit.
But she ended up without heating for three weeks, a home flooded from top to bottom, mouldy floors, holes in the walls, doubled heating bills and asthma attacks.
"It's been the worst experience of my life, and it just feels never-ending," Jane told Sky News.
"I'm just exhausted, truly, truly exhausted. I have spent every moment I have, between work and kids, pulling furniture around."
Her home is one of at least 30,000 left with defects by the ECO scheme.
The technologies on offer are well evidenced to improve homes, and many installations were done well under ECO.
But experts say the poor oversight and money available incentivised "cowboy" installers to do the upgrades even in homes that weren't suitable, or to shoddy standards.
Damning report shines fresh light on problem
Sky News reported some of these problems previously, and the bodies involved have been working since 2024 to fix some of the issues.
But a scathing new report has revealed that fewer than 10% of the thousands of homes installed with dodgy wall insulation have been fixed.
In the meantime, further bad installations have continued to take place, such as in Jane's rented home in south Wales last autumn.
What's more, the remedy has so far focused only on the 30,000 homes with faulty insulation.
But Sky News has received reports of scores more issues, from roofs damaged by solar panels, heating systems that couldn't accommodate the heat pumps, or insulation that got wet and spread mould.
The common thread is a sense of stress and helplessness.
The new report found that after a year of trying to resolve the issues, the quality scheme Trustmark had only identified and remedied 3,000 of the at least 30,000 affected by poor insulation.
Fraud, failings and financial risk
In fact, the Public Account Committee (PAC) of MPs said the whole thing ought to be referred to the Serious Fraud Office for the "sheer levels of non-compliance".
They described "a system with serious failings at every level" that has left already vulnerable recipients financially exposed.
Original installers are only liable to cover the remediation costs of up to £20,000, but some properties suffered £250,000 of damage.
PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP said: "Potentially thousands of people are now living with health and safety risks in their homes, and despite government's protestations we have nowhere near enough assurance that they are not financially exposed to unaffordable bills to repair the defective works."
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Minister for energy consumers Martin McCluskey said "we inherited a broken system from the previous government" and "are cleaning up this mess".
He said all homes with external wall insulation are being audited, and "no household should be asked to pay any money to put things right".
Ministers have also decided to replace the ECO with schemes run by local authorities, which have a "significantly better record of delivery", and to set up the new Warm Homes Agency, a single system for retrofit "to provide stronger, formal government oversight and driving up quality".
Concerns mistakes could be repeated
The report also raises difficult questions about the government's new Warm Homes plan, which is putting up £15bn to help more homes have solar panels, heat pumps and other green technology.
Ministers say this has been designed with better oversight to avoid the same mistakes and is also moving away from insulation, given the previous problems.
But Sir Geoffrey said the "public's confidence will have rightly been shaken in retrofit schemes" and the government now has a "self-inflicted job of work on its hands to restore faith in the action required to bring down bills and reduce emissions".
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: "Done properly, home upgrades and insulation are among the safest ways to bring down energy bills. Done badly, as we've seen, they can cause real harm."
He added: "What's shocking is not just the scale of the damage, but how long it was allowed to happen without effective intervention."
In an interview with Fox News in Davos, the US president repeated his criticism of NATO, saying he was not "sure" the alliance would "be there if we ever needed them".
He added: "We've never needed them.
"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."
Sky News US correspondent David Blevins said the comments would be deemed "grossly offensive" by allies who fought alongside the US.
America is the only NATO member to have invoked the collective security provisions of its Article 5 clause - that an attack against one member is an attack on all.
That came after the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001, which led to a US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The UK suffered the second-highest number of military deaths in the Afghanistan conflict at 457. The US saw 2,461 deaths.
America's allies suffered 1,160 deaths during the conflict - around a third of the total coalition deaths.
Trump 'is plainly wrong'
Social care minister Stephen Kinnock said Mr Trump's claim was "deeply disappointing".
Mr Kinnock told Sky News: "President Trump's comments are deeply disappointing. There is no other way to say that, I don't know really why he said them. I don't think there's any basis for him to make those comments."
He said there is "a long history of the British armed forces standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States".
"We will always stand up for the values that we cherish: democracy, freedom, liberty to push back against dictators and anybody else that seeks to undermine our values and our way of life and NATO is at the heart of that alliance."
He pointed to the fact that the only time NATO's Article 5 - a call for allies to come to your defence - had been activated "was to go to the aid of the United States after 9/11".
"And many, many British soldiers and many soldiers from other European and NATO allies gave their lives in support of American missions, American-led missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
"I am incredibly proud of our armed forces. They have put their lives on the line for our country. They are the definition of honour and valour and patriotism - and anybody who seeks to criticise what they have done and the sacrifices they make is plainly wrong," Mr Kinnock added.
'We have always been there'
Dame Emily Thornberry MP, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said Mr Trump's comments were "an insult" to the families of those who died and "so much more than a mistake".
Speaking on the BBC's Question Time, Dame Emily said: "How dare he say we weren't on the frontline, how dare he.
"We have always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us, we have always been there."
In a social media post, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey MP said: "Trump avoided military service five times.
"How dare he question their sacrifice. Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed."
Trump's words 'a disservice' to troops
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said it was "sad to see our nation's sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States".
He said: "I saw first hand the sacrifices made by British soldiers I served alongside in Sangin where we suffered horrific casualties, as did the US Marines the following year.
"I don't believe US military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies."
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Last year, US vice president JD Vance hit back at claims of "disrespecting" British troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, after suggesting a potential peacekeeping force in Ukraine would be "20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years".
At the time, only the UK and France had pledged troops to a potential peacekeeping force.