Photo credit: NPR
Donald Trump has called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace” and criticized Volodymyr Zelenskyy after an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine failed to take hold.
The Guardian reports that Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries after Zelenskyy said Kyiv was abandoning a ceasefire unilaterally declared by Trump on Sunday, having briefly halted its attacks to demonstrate its readiness for peace talks. Russia had continued striking Ukrainian power plants.
In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, the US President said: “All he’s doing is making the world oil price higher. Well, I think that’s a disgrace.
“There are a lot of targets you can hit, but when you shoot at diesel refineries where you make, you know, diesel oil, and we need that, and the world needs that, then he’s not doing a good service for the world.”
Relations between Kyiv and Washington have soured since Trump announced an easing of sanctions on Russia in exchange for Moscow releasing large amounts of diesel to global markets.
Zelenskyy criticized the agreement, which was widely interpreted as an attempt to curb high fuel prices before the US midterm elections, saying it would allow Russia to press on with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began more than four years ago. Trump’s efforts to end the war have made no progress.
Trump repeated to Newsmax his views of the two leaders involved in the conflict. “I’m not a big fan of Zelenskyy,” Trump said. “I think they actually both would like to see it to the end, but I think I find Zelenskyy to be more difficult to deal with than Putin.”
Arriving in Brussels to meet EU leaders on Friday, Zelenskyy did not comment on Trump’s latest remarks. He said he was “so thankful that we have such huge support from the EU” and its leaders, whom he described as “real leaders”.
He went on to say that Ukraine wanted to end the war as quickly as possible, but “we don’t see any signals from [the] Russian side that they are ready for this”.
Kyiv’s relationship with Washington was strained further this week when Ukraine said Starlink services had been restricted, in effect hobbling Ukrainian drone-strike missions and crucial air defences with a flick of the switch.
During a visit to London this week, the Ukrainian president said the sudden restriction of Starlink had left him feeling personally betrayed by Trump and lamented losing a partner.
