President Donald Trump appears to be deeply unhappy with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his recent decision to resume strikes on Russia’s oil refineries only days ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
Zelenskyy resumed the strikes despite the president having asked him to stop as early as last month, when he warned the Ukrainian leader that the world was experiencing a fuel crisis, according to Reuters.
During an interview on Thursday with Rob Finnerty of Newsmax, the president repeatedly lashed out at Zelenskyy over not only the strikes, but also other issues involving Ukraine.
“Zelenskyy’s not a good guy for us to deal with,” he bluntly said at one point.
Trump continued by using the term “disgrace” to describe the Ukrainian president’s decision to resume strikes despite its effect on oil and gas prices.
“Now, if you tell me that Zelenskyy is again shooting at refineries, all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher,” Trump said. “I think that’s a disgrace. There’s plenty of other targets. They don’t have to hit– there are a lot of targets that you can hit.”
“But when you shoot a diesel refineries where you make diesel oil, and we need that, and the world needs that, then he’s not doing a good service for the world,” the president added.
The president also admitted that to him personally, dealing with Zelenskyy is harder than dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin,” he said.
This wasn’t the first instance of him criticizing Zelenskyy in favor of the Russian president:
.@POTUS: “I think, actually, Putin wants to make a deal more than Zelensky.” https://t.co/jakykFpNCP
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 12, 2026
However, Zelenskyy has also been critical of Trump.
“As his clash escalated with Trump, Zelenskyy was in Brussels on Friday to shore up support from European allies, whom he called ‘real leaders’ as they gathered for a crucial summit,” according to NBC News.
All of this comes after President Trump announced a deal last week to buy diesel from Russia. The tentative deal sparked bipartisan backlash, with critics accusing him of acquiescing to Russia.
At least eight Senate Republicans have already publicly criticized the deal, according to The Hill. Several of them, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, reportedly wrote a letter to Trump calling the deal “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our allies.”
The president has nevertheless continued to maintain that he’s made the right decision.
“The European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy, and the Fake News Media doesn’t want to get near that story,” he wrote in a Truth Social post published Monday. “I made the right choice for the American People — ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!”
The president has also been lashing out at Zelenskyy for refusing to reach a final settlement with Russia and conclude the war:
JUST NOW: President Trump criticizes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by saying, “Zelenskyy could’ve stopped this war many times, and he chose not to… he better damn well stop.” https://t.co/HS3qmsPaZ7
— WORLD NEWS (@_MAGA_NEWS_) October 10, 2026
“Zelenskyy could have settled this war many times, many, many times, and he chooses not to,” Trump told reporters late last week. “It’s very difficult… But he could have settled it many times, and he chose not to.”
He also spoke about the gas and diesel issue.
“He wants to make problems for the world,” Trump said of Zelenskyy. “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.”
“And we told him, do whatever you want, but don’t hit the diesel fuel, because there’s a big problem, a big shortage,” the president continued.
“And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel. He can do whatever he wants, but he can’t do that, because we have a world problem.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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