US President Donald Trump has called for Ukraine to replace Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia that Ukraine’s president said had emboldened Moscow. Zelenskiy answered on Sunday with a conditional offer: Ukraine will stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Read across two days, the exchange is a demand met with a counter-offer — a sequence neither day’s reporting carries on its own.
Saturday: the demand
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for pushing up US diesel prices. “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” he said, the Daily Mirror reported, citing Reuters.
“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.” Zelenskiy had “better damn well stop”, Trump added, saying he had missed several chances to reach a deal with Moscow.
The same day, a Russian attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed 20 people, including three children. A six-year-old girl was among the dead when a strike brought down part of an apartment block; her grandfather, Anatoliy Chumniy, stood over her body after rescuers recovered it from the wreckage.
Zelenskiy tied the two together directly. “Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” he said. “Russia perceives any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly keep fighting… Different signals are needed.”
Moscow said on Saturday it had partially lifted its ban on diesel exports.
Sunday: the counter-offer
Zelenskiy did not accept the demand to stop unilaterally. Ukraine would halt attacks on Russian refineries only as part of a mutual de-escalation requiring Moscow to cease strikes on Ukrainian power infrastructure, Hiru News reported, also citing Reuters. Any such arrangement would need “real guarantees”.
“The real cause of the war in Europe is Russia and Russia alone,” he said, without referring to Trump’s remarks directly. “It’s possible to stop strikes on energy infrastructure as early as today, but Putin does not want to do so.”
The politics of diesel
The steep rise in global diesel prices since the Iran war began in February has become a liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections, when Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress. Friday’s agreement with President Vladimir Putin included a temporary waiver of US sanctions designed to deny Moscow revenue for the war.
Analysts quoted by Reuters doubted it would deliver sustained lower prices, noting the volumes are well below what Russia exports when its refineries are not under attack. The deal also drew criticism inside Trump’s own party: Republican Representative Don Bacon said the moment called for more sanctions, not fewer.
In Kyiv, residents rejected the suggestion that Ukraine change leaders. “No one has the right to tell us what to do, especially since elections cannot be held during wartime,” said Sabina, a 40-year-old primary school teacher, referring to Ukraine’s ban on elections under martial law.
The same diesel shock is one of the pressures the World Bank is now citing as it opens crisis-aid talks with 30 to 40 countries at this week’s annual meetings in Bangkok.
Not reported
Neither filing says how much diesel the US–Russia deal covers, how long the sanctions waiver runs, or what conditions attach to it. Neither reports any Russian response to Zelenskiy’s conditional offer, nor whether Washington has put it to Moscow. Neither gives a casualty figure for the Russian refineries struck, or says whether Ukraine has paused those strikes in the meantime.
Both accounts are Reuters copy. The war is in its fifth year; Kyiv has asked Washington to press Moscow for substantive negotiations to end it.
