US President Donald Trump on Saturday called for Ukraine to replace its leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy and railed against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, a day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia that had drawn a sharp rebuke from Zelenskiy.
In some of his harshest criticism yet of the White House, Zelenskiy linked the US lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel with a Russian attack on Saturday that killed 20 people, including 3 children, in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
A steep rise in global diesel prices, which followed the outbreak of the Iran war in February, has become a political liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections, when opposition Democrats could gain control of one or both houses of Congress.
“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump told reporters at the White House, saying Zelenskiy had hurt global diesel supplies with strikes on Russian refineries.
“He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world.”
Zelensky says diesel deal emboldens Russia
Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy said Trump’s announcement on Friday of the diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin had emboldened Moscow. Kyiv has instead urged Washington to pressure Moscow for serious negotiations to end the 4-1/2-year-old war.
The Russian government said on Saturday it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports.
“Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskiy said.
“Last night provided yet more confirmation that Russia perceives any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly keep fighting, that it can supposedly keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed.”
The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has been a regular target of Russian bombardment with strikes intensifying in the past few months.
On Saturday, a 6-year-old girl was among those killed in Zaporizhzhia when one strike reduced part of an apartment block to rubble. Her grandfather, Anatoliy Chumniy, stood sobbing over her body, laid on the ground in a white bag, after rescuers pulled it from the wreckage.
“Her birthday would have been at the end of the month,” he said through tears.
It was the third mass-casualty attack on Ukraine this week.
Nearly 80 civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, including at least 30 killed by a bomb in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk and 22 others by a missile in the town of Pryluky, about 130 km (80 miles) east of Kyiv.
The diesel deal was also criticized by US lawmakers, including one of Trump’s fellow Republicans, Representative Don Bacon, who said it was time to apply more sanctions that Congress had recently passed, not lift them.
Analysts said the agreement was unlikely to lead to sustained lower fuel prices, with the volumes still much lower than what Russia usually exports when its refineries are not under attack.
Britain vows to strengthen Russia sanctions
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke with Zelenskiy on Saturday and said Britain would strengthen its sanctions on Russia, according to a Downing Street spokesperson, who added that the two leaders would meet in person in the coming days.
The latest strikes followed talks between Ukrainian and European officials with US negotiators in Miami on Friday, which were aimed at developing a common proposal for ending the war, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Trump announced the diesel deal while the negotiations were under way, a move Zelenskiy said had caught Kyiv by surprise.
The Ukrainian delegation was headed home on Saturday, presidential aide Dmytro Lytvyn was cited by the Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying.
Putin said after a call with Trump on Friday that an immediate resumption of peace talks was unlikely, citing Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.
US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner may visit Moscow within the next two weeks, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing a source.
In his remarks at the White House, Trump criticized Zelenskiy over the lack of a peace deal, while demanding an end to Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities.
“I said to him, ‘Do what you want. Don’t hit refineries. There’s plenty of targets. Don’t hit refineries.’ And he went out and he hit,” Trump said. “He better damn well stop.”
“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals, but for some reason he never does,” he added.