U.S. President Donald Trump says it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not done enough to end his country’s war with Russia.
Speaking at the White House Saturday, Trump said, “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,″ adding that “for some reason [Zelenskyy] never does.”
Trump also suggested that if he had been U.S. president in 2022, “that war would have never started. There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.”
Zelenskyy has “lost 30 per cent of your country and you’ve had over a million people go between the two of them, over two million people killed. That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Trump’s comments come after Russian strikes killed at least 17 people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, one day after the U.S. president announced a deal to buy Russian diesel that Kyiv warned would help bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Three children were among those killed when Russian aerial bombs hit residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Saturday. At least 16 people were wounded in the attack.
WATCH | Trump strikes deal with Putin on diesel:
Trump reverses course on Russian oil sanctions
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a deal to import Russian diesel as fuel prices soar, reversing course on sanctions against Moscow. Ukraine is condemning the move, warning it will directly benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Missiles also struck Kyiv in a daytime attack Saturday. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said four people were wounded.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4½ years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine is struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 60 people over the past four days.
Trump said Friday he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a stunning reversal of years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine and an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
Anger in Kyiv over diesel deal
“Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote Saturday on X.
He 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.”
Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrive for a news conference on Oct. 4. Zelenskyy on Saturday criticized the new U.S.-Russia diesel deal. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
“Russia’s choice is war,” Zelenskyy said in a later Telegram post, after drone attacks on energy facilities and a ballistic missile attack on Kyiv.
He 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 added the diesel deal signalled to Moscow that “it is apparently permissible to continue attacking. And this needs to be corrected.”
He urged the U.S., Europe and other partners to limit Russia’s capacity to wage war.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was co-ordinating 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, adding that Ukraine would receive ammunition in the coming days for the F-16s it uses to intercept Shahed drones.
Trump was set to discuss a suspected case of plague in Russia with President Vladimir Putin in a phone call.
Instead, the American leader announced Friday that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons (272,100 tonnes) of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons (453,500 tonnes) in November and one million tons (907,000 tonnes) “immediately thereafter.” Russia will deliver an additional three million tons (2.7 million tonnes) “within a short period of time” after that, he wrote.
European allies question U.S.-Russia deal
Ukraine’s European allies expressed dismay at the deal and said they stood by their commitment to sanctions.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Stockholm regretted the agreement, “as energy revenues are central to the Russian war chest,” and noted that the European Union would adopt its most comprehensive sanctions package yet on Monday, with 1,600 listings targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex.
The German government “remains committed to the sanctions imposed on Russia and is working with its European partners on further sanctions,” spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said, adding that support for Ukraine “remains unwavering.”
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski questioned whether Russia could deliver at all. Citing his embassy’s reports of fuel shortages even in Moscow, and “serious sources” saying Ukraine has damaged about half of Russia’s refining capacity, he asked on X: “So where will the surpluses for export come from?”
WATCH | Rubio says Ukraine war reaching dangerous ‘stalemate’:
War in Ukraine is at a dangerous stalemate, says U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
A Russian bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed at least 33 people, authorities said Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is warning that the war could escalate to a broader regional conflict involving NATO countries.
Trump’s shocking announcement was in stark contrast to a sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last month that aimed at clamping down on the oil and gas revenues that fuel Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In a lengthy post online reacting to the deal on Friday, Zelenskyy said Russia would repay it “with further terror and perfidy.” He framed it as an investment in the war that could prolong it.
“It plays into Russia’s hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world,” he said.
According to a statement released by the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, Zelenskyy called it “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners.”
Trump announced the deal as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Ukrainian officials in Miami to discuss a proposal to end the war.
“I believe our team is simply being used as a smoke screen. And that is certainly not fair. It is certainly not how partners should treat each other,” Zelenskyy said.