President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian citizens to replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he has not done enough to “make a deal” to end the war with Russia and bring down diesel prices.
The president blamed Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries as a contributing factor to increasing diesel prices, telling reporters outside the White House on Saturday: “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Fuel costs have widely gone up in association with the U.S.’s war in Iran, which has prompted Iranian attacks on refineries in the Persian Gulf and restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key transportation waterway.
Trump on Friday announced a deal to buy Russian diesel to ease U.S. fuel prices before the midterms, prompting harsh criticism from Zelenskyy. A day later, Russia began a series of strikes that hit Kyiv as well as the country’s Zaporizhzhia region.
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Zelenskyy told Axios on Friday that he was blindsided by the deal, later saying it signaled to Russia that it was “apparently permissible” to keep attacking Ukraine.
“Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Friday. “Russia will ‘repay’ the diesel with further terror and perfidy.”
Trump, who has had a volatile relationship with Zelenskyy, said the Ukrainian leader “chooses not to” end the war, adding that Zelenskyy “better damn well stop” targeting refineries. Russia supplies a large portion of the world’s diesel supply, which Trump said has been negatively affected by the strikes.
“He wants to make problems for the world; he wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” Trump said Saturday.
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