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U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement released by the White House on Saturday that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” sharply criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over continued strikes on Russian oil refineries and what Trump described as a failure to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Speaking outside the White House before flying to a campaign rally in Tennessee, Trump made the comments about the Ukrainian President in relation to a deal reached by the US with Russia late last week to allow limited amounts of diesel fuel to be exported to the US and around the world. The sanctions on Russia that would normally prohibit such a deal have been temporarily lifted in order to ease currently extremely high diesel fuel prices around the country – currently averaging over $6 per gallon.
“Perhaps it is time for Ukraine to have a new President. Someone who can make a deal with Russia.” The current leader “could have made many deals, but for some reason he does not.”
Trump said that the Ukrainian leader was, in effect, ignoring the US’s previous cautions on not bombing Russian oil refineries “because that’s a world problem” and that, in hitting the diesel fuel stores at those refineries, “Zelensky better damn well stop.”
“Zelensky could have settled this war many times, many, many times, and he chooses not to,” Trump said. Instead, he added, Ukraine continued to lose “30% of your country” and “a lot of people” as it suffered significant casualties. Trump repeated that if he were president in 2022, the war in Ukraine would never have occurred.
The comments came just a day after the former president brokered a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to send diesel fuel to the U.S. and around the world while temporary sanctions are lifted. Zelenskyy had trashed the arrangement as a “present” to the Russians that would fund their war against Ukraine and said the accompanying peace talks were little more than a “smokescreen.”
Trump has been at odds with the Ukrainian leader for some time. He has called into question the legitimacy of Zelensky and suggested elections in the country.
No immediate response to Trump’s comments on the Ukrainian leader were reported by Zelenskyy. The situation on the battlefield continues to deteriorate for Ukraine with increasing frequency of attacks by both warring sides.
