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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday his country could hold elections if Russia agreed to a 60-day total ceasefire, pushing back against US counterpart Donald Trump's call for Ukraine to pick a new leader.
"First of all, with all respect to President Trump, it's up to our society, up to our people to choose one or another leader", Zelenskyy told ABC News in a televised interview, a day after Trump said Ukraine needed a new president who would agree to end the war.
Zelenskyy said he told Trump's team that if they really wanted Ukraine to hold elections, "please tell Putin to give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organise elections".
"We want peace, we are ready for a ceasefire, we are ready to begin with any kind of steps of de-escalation", Zelenskyy told ABC in a TV interview.
"And if the Russians want us not to attack their diesel, their refineries, etc., we are asking President Trump to give them a signal not to attack the energy infrastructure of Ukraine".
'Don't kill our children, we will stop attacking your diesel'
The exchange came as Kyiv pressed its campaign against infrastructure deep inside Russia, with a drone attack on Sunday shutting down a data centre run by Russian technology giant Yandex, the third strike on the company’s facilities in four days.
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 after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
"It is possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so", Zelenskyy said on X, adding that any de-escalation must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees.
"Don't attack us. Don't kill our children. We will stop attacking your diesel. And I think it's a fair deal", he added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed back on Trump's comments, writing on X late Saturday that Zelenskyy was leading the country through a war for its independence. "He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide. Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well", Sybiha wrote.
Trump vows for 'new leader' in Ukraine
Trump said Saturday it was time for Ukraine to get a new president, suggesting Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war and blaming him for high diesel prices in the U.S.
"I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does", Trump said.
The US president, who on Friday struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia in an attempt to address high fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections, has been urging Zelenskyy for weeks to stop strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
He has sought to blame record US diesel prices on Ukraine rather than the US-led war in Iran, which has driven up world energy prices. Ukrainian and European officials reacted to the diesel deal with dismay, saying it will help pay for Russia’s war effort.