Trump calls to replace Zelensky as Ukraine president in tussle over diesel deal with Russia

• Trump said Ukraine needs “a new president” and urged Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries, after announcing a diesel deal with Russia that angered Kyiv.
• Zelensky condemned the sanctions lift, saying Russia replied by bombing Zaporizhzhia, where a strike killed 20 people, including three children, and destroyed homes.
• The fighting continued to worsen, with nearly 80 civilians killed in Russian strikes this week, while US, Ukrainian and European talks on a peace plan continued in Miami.

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Oct 10 called for Ukraine to replace its leader Volodymyr Zelensky and railed against Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, a day after announcing a diesel supply deal with Russia that drew a sharp rebuke from Zelensky.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals, but for some reason he never does,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

Zelensky, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the White House, blasted Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift sanctions on Russian diesel, which comes as soaring energy prices have become a political liability for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The Russian government said on Oct 10 it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports with immediate effect.

“Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelensky said after a Russian strike on that city on Oct 10 killed 20 people, including three children.

The southern city of Zaporizhzhia has been a regular target of Russian bombardment with strikes intensifying in the past few months.

Strikes on Russian energy ‘better damn well stop’

Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, imposed about a year ago with the intent of depriving Russia of funding for its war in Ukraine, coincides with persistently high fuel prices that have followed from US conflict with Iran.

Kyiv had instead urged Washington to increase pressure on Moscow to force it into serious negotiations to end the 4½-year war.

Trump has criticised Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, which he says have driven up global prices, while Kyiv has said it wants a total halt on all energy strikes by both sides as Moscow pummels Ukraine’s power grid.

“I said to him, ‘Do what you want. Don’t hit refineries. There’s plenty of targets. Don’t hit refineries.’ And he went out and he hit,” Trump said of Zelensky as he departed for a political rally.

On Oct 10, a six-year-old girl was among those killed in Zaporizhzhia when one strike reduced part of an apartment block to rubble.

It was the third mass-casualty attack on Ukraine this week.

Nearly 80 civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Oct 7 and Oct 8, including at least 30 killed by a bomb in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk and 22 others by a missile in the town of Pryluky, about 130km east of Kyiv.

The latest strikes followed talks between Ukrainian and European officials with the US in Miami on Friday, which were aimed at developing a common proposal for ending the war, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Trump announced the diesel deal while the negotiations were under way, a move Zelensky said had caught Kyiv by surprise.

The Ukrainian delegation was headed home on Oct 10, presidential aide Dmytro Lytvyn was cited by the Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying.

Putin said after a call with Trump on Oct 9 that an immediate resumption of ‌peace ⁠talks was unlikely, citing Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.

US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner may visit Moscow within the next two weeks, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Oct 10, citing a source. REUTERS