Trump called on Saturday for Ukraine to “get a new leader” after Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Washington’s easing of Russian diesel sanctions, as the US president faces fuel price pressure weeks before midterm elections.
Trump, whose Republicans face dim prospects in next month’s vote partly because of soaring energy costs, defended a deal allowing more Russian diesel onto global markets after saying Vladimir Putin wanted “strongly” to reach a settlement in Ukraine.
Trump accused the Ukrainian president of blocking a deal with Moscow and ignoring instructions to not strike Russian refineries, while Kyiv and its European allies warned that easing pressure on Moscow would help fund the Kremlin’s war.
The row unfolded as the latest Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 21 people, including children.
Trump announced Friday that he had spoken to Putin and agreed for Russia to release large amounts of diesel into world markets.
Ukraine and its European allies expressed dismay, with Zelensky telling reporters Friday it was a “weak decision.”
Asked about the criticism, Trump said Zelensky had disobeyed his orders not to strike Russian refineries and that the attacks risked worsening fuel shortages linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“He better damn well stop,” Trump said.
“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal, because he could have made many deals that, for some reason, he never does,” Trump said.
Trump later said Putin was interested in ending the war.
“Russia would like to make a deal… but for whatever reason, Zelensky does not want to make a deal,” he told reporters.
“President Putin would like to see a settlement, strongly.”
The US president also criticised Zelensky for not holding an election since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
“I think he should have an election and he could have settled this thing many times,” Trump said.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said lifting sanctions on Russian diesel would only help sustain Russia’s war effort.
“This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” she wrote online.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham reiterated his “complete solidarity” with Zelensky in a call.
Downing Street said Burnham also pledged that Britain would “strengthen its sanctions on Russia”.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga also backed his president. “He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide,” he said in a post on X.
On Saturday, a Russian glide bomb attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed 20 people, including three children, according to Ukraine’s state rescue service.
“Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
An AFP correspondent saw rescue workers pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble.
“We saw people under the rubble — a woman, her husband and a child,” one rescuer, Daniil Pishkin, told AFP.
He said two people were rescued alive, but “unfortunately there was a little girl who died”.
A resident identified as Iryna, 69, said she managed to shelter in her bathroom after receiving an air-raid alert.
Her two neighbors were killed.
“They were 75 years old. They were simply thrown out there, onto the street. They didn’t make it to the hospital,” she told AFP.
A Russian drone attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed an 11-year-old boy, regional officials said.
Russian strikes also caused widespread power cuts in Kyiv.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had hit a “data center” used by Ukraine’s military.
The diesel deal was announced as US, Ukrainian and European officials met in Miami in a renewed bid towards ending the conflict.
Ukraine’s delegation was headed home on Saturday, an aide to Zelensky said.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said on X the talks involved “the E3, the European Commission, Ukraine and NATO.”
He described the discussions as “constructive” and focused on ways to “de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter and advance efforts toward a durable and lasting peace.”
The Kremlin said Saturday that Trump had conveyed his ideas about how to de-escalate the war to Putin during a phone call on Friday.
Putin received the proposals “with understanding”, the Kremlin said, without elaborating.
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, now occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.