President Donald Trump said Saturday that Ukraine should replace President Volodymyr Zelensky, arguing that Zelensky has been the main obstacle to ending the more than four-and-a-half-year war with Russia.
Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said, “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” adding that “for some reason (Zelensky) never does.”
Trump again claimed the war would never have started had he been president when Russia invaded instead of Joe Biden. “That war would have never started. There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence,” he said.
He also criticized Zelensky’s wartime record, saying, “You’ve lost 30 per cent 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 started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Zelensky, a former television actor who was elected president in 2019, has faced criticism from Washington for not holding elections that had been scheduled for 2024 but were canceled under martial law. Zelensky has said holding a vote during the war would be too costly and logistically difficult, particularly for collecting ballots from Ukrainians living abroad. Trump has pointed to the canceled elections in suggesting Zelensky is acting as a “dictator.”
Russia oil deal draws Zelensky rebuke
Trump’s remarks came hours after he announced a deal with Vladimir Putin under which Russia would “immediately” supply 300,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to the “American and Global Marketplace,” with another 500,000 tonnes planned for November and a million tonnes more “immediately thereafter,” building toward a goal of at least three million tonnes entering global markets.
Zelensky criticized the arrangement, warning that revenue from Russian oil exports would fund Moscow’s continued war effort.
“Every additional billion dollars they can earn from exports will be spent on nothing but sourcing and importing critical components and equipment to manufacture weapons, upgrading ‘shaheds,’ producing missiles, and recruiting even more mercenaries to fight at the front. Russia’s choice is war. And they will be ready to end it only when they feel that their ability to drag the war out is diminishing,” Zelensky wrote on X.
He added: “Unfortunately, the signals Russia received yesterday were entirely different – signals suggesting that it could simply keep attacking. And this needs to be corrected. Strong signals are needed from the United States, Europe, and other partners – signals in support of Ukraine and to RESTRICT Russia’s ability to wage war and terrorize people. Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine!”
Talks in Miami cut short
The exchange between the two leaders followed an abrupt end to peace talks in Miami. Ukrainian and European diplomats had begun meeting Friday with U.S. negotiators, including envoy Steve Witkoff, with discussions expected to continue Saturday. Instead, Kyiv announced its delegation was “already on its way home.”
The two sides remain far apart on key issues, particularly Russian demands that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region, only part of which Russia currently occupies. Zelensky has refused to give up that territory, arguing it would give Russia a staging ground for a future attempt to conquer the rest of Ukraine.
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