U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine should consider replacing President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting that he has been the impediment to the two sides coming to a peace agreement and ending the over four and a half year war with Russia.
Speaking to reporters from the White House lawn on Saturday, President Trump said of Ukraine, “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” adding that “for some reason (Zelensky) never does.”
President Trump repeated his assertion that the war would not have begun were he in office at the time of the Russian invasion rather than former President Joe Biden, saying, “that war would have never started. There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.”
Trump went on to admonish Zelensky for having “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, an actor who portrayed a president on Ukrainian television before being elected to the same office in 2019, has come under criticism from Washington for having failed to hold elections scheduled in 2024 that were cancelled under martial law. While other nations have held successful elections during war, Zelensky claimed that it was too expensive and difficult due to collect votes from the Ukrainian diaspora across Europe. Trump has suggested that this makes the Ukraine leader a “dictator“.
The comments on Saturday from Trump came hours after he secured a deal with Vladimir Putin for Russia to “immediately” supply the “American and Global Marketplace” with 300,000 tonnes of diesel feul, with a futher 500,000 planned for November, and another one million tonnes “immediately thereafter”, with the ultimate goal of at least three million tonnes being added to the global markets.
The deal was heavily criticised by President Zelensky, who asserted that the money gained by Russia from its oil exports would be used by Moscow to double down on its war efforts in Ukraine.
“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 on Saturday.
“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!” he added.
The public spat between the U.S. and Ukraine leaders came as peace talks in Miami ended sooner than expected. While Ukrainian and European diplomats began meeting on Friday with U.S. negotiators, including U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, and were expected to continue talks on Saturday, Kyiv announced that their team was “already on its way home”.
The two sides of the conflict have so far been unwilling to budge on key areas of dissagrement, notably demands from the Kremlin that Ukraine cede control of the entire Donbas region, only some of which has come under Russian occupation following the invasion. Zelensky has so far refused to surrender such territory, and has claimed that it would only be used by Russia at a later date to relaunch a bid to fully conquer Ukriane.