It is unfair and unacceptable for Trump to blame me for war Russia started – Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers Donald Trump’s accusations against Kyiv over the continuation of the war unfair. In his view, the US president is trying to divert attention from Iran and the Middle East.
He said this on The Diary of a CEO podcast, Censor.NET reports.
On Trump
According to Zelenskyy, Trump cannot reach a ceasefire agreement with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, so he "decided to place responsibility for this problem on me rather than Putin, explaining to his staff that diesel prices in America are rising because of us".
The president reiterated that Russian diesel does not affect fuel prices in the US or worldwide.
"I believe it is wrong and unacceptable for Trump to blame me for Russia’s aggression and the killings committed by Russia. He is distorting the context, and that is unfair. I believe this is simply an attempt to divert attention from Iran and what is happening in the Middle East," Zelenskyy said.
He also said he considered Trump’s accusations about rising diesel prices unfair: Ukraine strikes Russian oil refineries in response to attacks on its own energy infrastructure, he said.
Zelenskyy said he had offered Trump the option of supplying Ukraine with more air defence missiles "not for free", in which case "I would not fire at anyone; I would defend our energy sector".
He said it was impossible to "simply forgive everything" and say: "Well, sorry, it’s Putin, a powerful state. Let’s just forget everything, forgive everything and somehow go on buying and selling gas and diesel."
On the "rain" and the "loser general"
Zelenskyy also responded to Trump’s remarks several days earlier that Russian forces had failed to capture Kyiv at the start of the full-scale invasion only because "the heaviest rain in 10 years" had fallen the previous night, and a "not very smart Russian general" had ordered a column travelling towards the capital along a highway to turn into fields, where Russian tanks became bogged down.
"I don’t understand what President Trump is talking about. [...] It wasn’t a matter of some general being an idiot. To capture Kyiv, they would have needed about 300,000–400,000 troops. They needed twice as many people. They did not even realise they would face resistance," Zelenskyy said.
According to him, the issue was not a failed general giving the wrong order, but Russia’s failure to anticipate such strong resistance from Ukrainians.
"With all the armour they lost near Kyiv, Hostomel and elsewhere... dozens, hundreds of armoured vehicles burned. Armoured vehicles drove through the streets, and people set them on fire. They were particularly shocked when they were heading towards the capital and people simply threw burning debris. I mean, people set their armour on fire," Zelenskyy added.
- On 18 October, Donald Trump criticised Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries in Russia in a Truth Social post, claiming they were harming the global diesel market. Trump also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being unwilling to end the war.
