US President Donald Trump called on Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a leader willing to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, as tensions between Washington and Kyiv escalated over a newly announced diesel deal between the United States and Moscow.
"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."
Trump said that under Zelenskyy, Ukraine had "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."
Trump also suggested that if he had been US president in 2022, "that war would have never started," adding: "There was no reason that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga swiftly defended Zelenskyy in response to the remarks. "He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide," Sybiga wrote on X. "Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well. He deserves support."
The remarks came hours after Russian strikes killed at least 20 people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, according to Ukrainian officials.
On Friday, Trump announced he had struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, a significant reversal of years of US pressure on Moscow over its war in 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 shortly thereafter. Russia would deliver a further three million tonnes "within a short period of time," Trump added.
Trump has been urging Zelenskyy for weeks to halt attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. He has also sought to attribute record-high US diesel prices to Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries rather than to other factors driving global energy costs.
The diesel deal drew a furious reaction from Zelenskyy. Following Saturday's Russian strikes, 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 demonstrated that Moscow interprets "any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities."
He warned that every additional billion dollars Russia earns from exports would help fund weapons components, drone upgrades, missile production and the recruitment of mercenaries, and that Moscow would only be ready to stop when its capacity to fight was diminished.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was coordinating steps to counter the additional revenue Russia would receive. He said he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron about strengthening air defences, warning of an increased risk of missile strikes in the coming days. He also said he had spoken with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and that Ukraine would receive ammunition for its F-16 jets, used to intercept Shahed drones, within days.
Ukraine's European allies expressed dismay at the deal and reaffirmed their commitment to sanctions against Russia.
Trump's announcement stood in stark contrast to a sweeping Russia sanctions law he signed last month, which was aimed at reducing the oil and gas revenues funding Moscow's war effort.
Russia and Ukraine remain locked in a long-range aerial conflict while their armies are largely deadlocked along the front line, more than four and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion. Ukraine has been struggling to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed at least 60 people over the past four days.
