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Trump
says Ukraine needs a new leader after diesel deal with Russia
US
president suggests Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not done
enough to end war
Sat 10
Oct 2026 21.42 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/ukraine-russia-strikes-war-trump-diesel-deal-zelenskyy
Donald
Trump has said Ukraine needs “a new leader”, a day after making a deal with Vladimir Putin to
buy large quantities of Russian diesel.
The US
president suggested Volodymyr
Zelenskyy has not done enough to end the war with Russia and blamed him for
high diesel prices in the US.
“I
suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made
many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump said.
Trump
made the comments as Russia launched deadly strikes on civilians in Ukraine, which Zelenskyy
said were a “thanks” to Trump for the diesel deal.
The
Ukrainian president has expressed outrage at the agreement
announced by Trump on Friday, which the US president said was needed to
reduce diesel prices, and comes ahead of November’s midterm elections in which
fuel costs are a key voter issue.
The deal,
which appeared to blindside Kyiv as it was announced while Ukrainian
negotiators were in Miami for peace talks, was described by Zelenskyy as a
“gift” to Russia’s president.
He said
Russia would use the money it raised from the fuel sales to invest in its war
and that “any easing of sanctions” would play into Russia’s hands, “allowing it
to kill more, wage war for longer”.
That
prediction was realised hours later, when Ukrainian officials announced that a
barrage of Russian strikes on the country’s south-east early on Saturday had
killed 20 people, including three children.
Rescuers
working at the site of an apartment building damaged by a Russian strike in
Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Reuters
“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 on social
media on Saturday.
“Last
night confirmed once again that in Russia, they take any easing of pressure to
mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities.
Different signals are needed,” he said.
There
were also “large-scale power outages” in the capital, Kyiv, the country’s
largest private energy provider said.
Andy
Burnham reiterated his “complete solidarity” in a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy
and the leaders agreed to meet in person in the coming days to continue talks.
The prime
minister said he recognised the past day had been “difficult for Ukraine” and
the two talked about the importance of keeping up pressure on Russia, No 10
said.
In stark
contrast to Zelenskyy’s open frustration with Trump, a Kremlin readout of
Friday’s call between the US president and Putin was glowing, with the Russian news agency Interfax quoting an aide as saying it was “very substantive and friendly”.
“Neither
wanted to be the first to hang up,” the Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri
Ushakov said of the two leaders. “They hung up simultaneously, literally at the
same time.” Zelenskyy has previously said
Putin is playing games with Trump.
The
diesel deal disrupts four years of western financial pressure on Moscow and
leaves Kyiv’s allies in Europe
and Nato scrambling to adapt their sanctions plan. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja
Kallas, said the diesel deal “provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war”.
“This is
not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” she said on
Saturday. “On Monday, EU foreign ministers intend to approve the biggest set of
sanctions listings targeting Russia’s war machine since the start of the war.”
She was referring to plans to formally add 1,600 new individuals and entities
to the EU’s sanctions blacklist.
Kaja
Kallas with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit in Copenhagen last year.
Photograph: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters
Major
European governments have attempted to balance their diplomatic and trade
relationships with a mercurial Trump and their support for Ukraine.
The
German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin “remains committed
to the sanctions imposed on Russia and is working with its European partners on
further sanctions”, adding that support for Ukraine “remains unwavering”.
Ulf
Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, expressed “regret” at the US
agreement, saying energy revenues were “a vital source of funding Russia’s war
of aggression”.
Zelenskyy
said on Saturday that Russia “must feel its losses” and has promised to
respond. In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Ukrainian attacks in the
past 24 hours had killed four civilians and wounded five, the region’s Russian-installed governor, Leonid
Pasechnik, said on Saturday.
Zelenskyy
said that Ukraine was ready to take “de-escalatory steps” in the war but only
if Russia did the same.
Russia’s
fuel production has become a key point of contention between Zelenskyy and
Trump, who has attempted to stop Ukraine from bombing Russian refineries, which
he says exacerbates a global diesel shortage. The Ukrainian leader has rejected
such requests unless Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The
Financial Times reported
that during the talks in Miami, Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner
raised the possibility that US intelligence sharing could be cut off if Kyiv
did not halt the strikes.
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