US leader suggests Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war amid tensions with Kyiv over a diesel deal with Russia.
United States President Donald Trump says Ukraine should replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a new leader, lashing out at him for Kyiv’s strikes on Russian oil refineries that have contributed to high diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections.
“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump said at the White House on Saturday, adding that “for some reason [Zelenskyy] never does.”
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Trump said that under Zelenskyy, Ukraine has “lost 30 percent of your country and you’ve had over a million people go between the two of them, over 2 million people killed. That’s a war that should have never have started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Following the remarks, Ukraine’s foreign minister defended Zelenskyy. “He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide,” Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X. “Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well. He deserves support.”
Trump, who on Friday struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to reduce high fuel prices ahead of the US midterms, has been urging Zelenskyy for weeks to stop attacking Russian energy infrastructure.
He has also sought to blame record-high US diesel prices on Ukraine rather than the US-led war in Iran, which has elevated world energy prices.
Trump suggested on Saturday that if he had been US president in 2022 “that war would have never started”.
“There was no reason that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence,” he said.
The remarks came hours after Russian strikes killed at least 20 people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than four and a half years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine is struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed at least 60 people over the past four days.
Anger in Kyiv over diesel deal
On Friday, Trump said he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of Washington’s pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine.
He said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November and one million tonnes “immediately thereafter.” Russia will deliver an additional three million tonnes “within a short period of time” after that, he added.
The move drew a furious reaction from Zelenskyy. After Russia’s strikes on Saturday, he wrote on X: “Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia”.
Zelenskyy said the attacks show Moscow understands “any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities.”
The president said every additional billion dollars Russia earns from exports would help pay for weapons components, drone upgrades, missile production and the recruitment of mercenaries, and that Moscow would only be ready to stop when its ability to fight diminished.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was coordinating steps to counter the extra revenue Russia will receive and that he had spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron about shoring up air defences, warning of an increased risk of further missile strikes in the coming days.
He also said he had discussed the developments with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and that Ukraine would receive ammunition in the coming days for the F-16s used to intercept Shahed drones.
Ukraine’s European allies have expressed dismay at the Russian deal and said they stood by their commitment to sanctions.
Trump’s announcement about the deal was in stark contrast to a sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last month aimed at clamping down on the oil and gas revenues that fuel the war against Ukraine.
Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Ukrainian officials in Miami on Friday to discuss a proposal to end the war.