Trump: It is time for Ukraine to elect new president
US President Donald Trump has stated that he believes it is time for Ukraine to elect a new leader who will be able to reach agreements to end the war.
He made these remarks whilst speaking to journalists, as quoted by Sky News and reported by Censor.NET.
Accusations against Zelenskyy
The US President stated that "Zelenskyy is only seeking to create problems for the whole world and the United States, even though he could have ended this war many times over".
"We said: you can do whatever you like with Russia, but don’t strike oil refineries, because that creates a global problem, and he wants to cause problems for the whole world. He wants to cause problems for our farmers over diesel fuel, because Russia supplies a significant proportion of it to the global market. We told them: do whatever you want, but don’t strike facilities linked to diesel fuel, because that creates a major problem, a major danger. And what does he do? He goes and strikes those facilities. He’d be better off, for God’s sake, stopping," Trump said.
The White House chief believes it is time for Ukraine to elect a new president.
"I suggest Ukraine elects a new leader who can strike a deal. For some reason, Zelenskyy never strikes deals," Trump said.
What led up to this?
- On 9 October, US President Donald Trump stated that he had spoken with Russian dictator Putin, with whom he had agreed on the supply of diesel fuel from Russia to US and global markets.
- According to him, Russia will "immediately" supply over 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and global markets, a further 500,000 tonnes in November, and another million tonnes "immediately afterwards".
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The US Treasury Department announced that, on Trump’s instructions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is immediately issuing a temporary general licence to permit the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the global market.
- In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia’s authorisation to sell petroleum products as an "investment in war" and called on the US to hold firm talks with Moscow and impose sanctions under the Lindsey Graham Act.
- It should be recalled that, against the backdrop of Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, the Russian authorities have repeatedly extended the ban on diesel fuel exports until at least the end of October.
- The US President has publicly stated that Ukraine must cease its strikes on the Russian energy sector, as this, he claims, is leading to a diesel fuel shortage. According to him, the shortage has arisen precisely because of the war in Ukraine, and not because of the US war against Iran.
- Similar statements have been made by other US politicians. For instance, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Ukrainian strikes on the Russian energy sector were leading to an energy crisis. He cited the war with Iran as the second cause of the crisis.
